


Pastel Void

by flargablarga



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Amnesia, F/F, F/M, Gen, Good W. D. Gaster, Goopy W. D. Gaster, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, SOUL Mechanics (Undertale), Sans (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Scientist W. D. Gaster, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, filler characters - Freeform, group amnesia, mystery tube human, there's a lot of guillt lets be real
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 32,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22730386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flargablarga/pseuds/flargablarga
Summary: While doing a final sweep of the Lab, a young victim of circumstance is found and saved, with little known about them. Despite their best efforts, Sans, Papyrus, Alphys, Frisk, and others struggle to find answers on this human's history. There appears to be a key component missing, with a large gap in the group's memory. In the meantime, what to do with poor Sam?
Relationships: Grillby (Undertale)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

They remembered the pain.

There was no MERCY that could take it away. It pooled throughout their being with the memory of every strike against their already battered body. 

They remembered begging him to stop. To put his weapon away and realize what he was doing.

But he didn't.

At least until...

Until what exactly? That's always where the memories fade to black. Nothing more than garbled words and utter helplessness.

And they always ended up in the same dark room.

In the same tank.

Banging against the thick glass.

To no one ever coming.


	2. Chapter 2

"And that o-over there is where the - I first created Mettaton..."

While the tour had been planned many days in advance, Frisk was almost still amused that the entirety of the True Lab was a mess and a half. Even after the experiments had been revealed and the amalgamates allowed home to their families, the place was Nothing short of a wreck. Papers remained scattered here and there, dog kibble bits loved to slip under any foot nearby, empty containers rested in and around almost every bed...

Well, it had surely seen better days at least. 

The once full tubes that lined the walls were empty, their occupants gone home or disposed of. It truly, honestly, looked more abandoned than the used Alphys claimed it was.

The tallest of Frisk's skeleton friends faltered a moment when they pointed to one of the doors. Dust covered the battered and forgotten wood, the lock pinning the door shut.

"ALPHYS! THE HUMAN WANTS TO KNOW WHAT'S BEHIND THAT DOOR!" Subtle his middle name was not. 

Their small group came to a stop with the words, the royal scientist pausing as well. Perhaps it's the address of it that made her turn to the door. Alphys squeezed her hands shut after a moment. "I-I I don't know. It's b-been locked since I've worked here." 

But she caught herself stammering a moment. Had that door truly always been locked? As far back as she could remember it had, but... it just didn't seem right. Surely that door had, at once, been opened.... right?

"L-Let me call Dr. Rolia. Sh-She's worked here longer than I-I have. Maybe she'll know." Or have the key... that would be nice.

Dr. Rolia. An enigma among the new collection of recently instated Royal Scientists. She had been studying with royal appointed scientists for longer than the current one had been alive. Countless tomes were attributed to her-many of them that had been used in Alphys' own inventions. It had taken the... more unfortunate of Alphys's experiments to wander down to the dark depths of the lowest floors to have found the cryptic doctor, still toiling away in her research. It had the same amalgam to squelch stickily against the doctor as well to even cause her to look up from her work. Even then Alphys wasn't sure that Dr. Rolia was actually real, not just some figment of her sleep and very much touch-starved brain.

Speak of the devil...

Well, bat monster.

"HELLO, DR. ROLIA!" It was unsurprising that Papyrus was the first to respond to her presence. The human in his arms let out the smallest of noises before waving.

"How is the tour going, you three?" There's the smallest of smiles on Rolia's features, one that quickly faded as an arm was brought up over her chest to bow a little before Alphys. "The paper work has finally been submitted to the council about the latest experiments. With his Majesty's help, we should be fine with the embassy."

Well that was a relief.

But back to business-- “DR. ROLIA! THE HUMAN, FRISK, AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT IS BEHIND THIS LOCKED DOOR!”

“If-If you know, that i-is.” The younger scientist cut in quickly. “I-I-I’ve never seen what was inside and since you’ve w-w-worked here longer than anyone else that I’ve known-- Oh this is so stupid to ask…”

The silence that followed was nearly palpable, clinging to everything it could smother itself upon. Any distance between Rolia and the door was swiftly swept beneath long strides. Her fingers drew down the time weathered surface, tracing every dent, crack, or stain. Yes, this was it. The room behind this door…

“Dr. R-Rolia?” Alphys hesitated before scooching just that much further towards Rolia. “D-Do you know what that door is for?”

  
“Of course I do…”

Well that was definitely not the answer anyone present was expecting. Although it made sense: The scientist had worked there for ages before the seventh child fell. She’d seen the horrors that this lab has produced, felt the barrier shatter--perhaps had even been there since before the barrier was raised… Oh the stories that she could tell.

“Just the best loot!”

Alphys blinked. Wait, what?

“OF COURSE, DR. ROLIA!!” It didn’t take long for the human to be placed ever so gently on the ground and ushered off to a more respectable distance from the door. “I, THE GREAT AND MAGNIFICENT PAPYRUS, WILL SHOW YOU MY IMPECCABLE AND AMAZINGLY COOL LOCKING PICKING SKILLS!” With more than completely unnecessary flourishes, the skeleton summoned up an attack, quickly pointing the large femur towards the offending door. Rolia only paused a little to beckon both Alphys and Frisk shelter under either of her leathery wings, thankful that there was no hesitation or argument on either account. With what she knew about the bombastic skeleton, this display would be unlikely subtle.

It wasn’t.

Splintering wood crackled into the air, spitting debris out. Two strikes later and the door, along with it’s pesky lock, were rendered completely useless. Darkness loomed in the open room, dusty air slipped past them as if the room had been under a vacuum. 

“SPECTACULAR DISPLAY AS ALWAYS!” He announced before promptly starting in ahead of the others. “IT IS QUITE DARK IN HERE! HUMAN FRISK! DO YOU HAVE THAT FLASHLIGHT STILL?!”

A moment before Papyrus had finished, Frisk was already digging through their inventory, pulling out the plastic torch Toriel had proudly given to them. The light it gave out was weak, but it was more than enough to see the room.

Papers littered a long trail from the door, across the floor to the single desk squished into the only corner of the room to not have machinery. The wooden shards on the linoleum scraped under the scientist’s bare feet as the two of them took to looking the room over. Several of the machines wore dust covers, but they were still pretty clearly on. Lights shone through them, showing exactly how many buttons were still operational. 

“WOWIE THIS LOOT IS… WELL I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT ANY OF IT IS FOR!” 

“Well, this wasn’t what I was expecting.” Rolia admitted quietly. She just moved forward to the machines, gently tugging on the dust covers. “I’m not even sure what any of this does.”

The machines were still somewhere in the same group of how the CORE was built. It was probably even the same creator. What a lead that was, then. But a lead like that meant nothing if they still had more questions than answers. The last of the dust covers came off with the smallest of Dust Bunnies following after. Whatever this machine was, it definitely had been here the longest. 

Longest and most used, by the looks of it…

The center of the machines loomed even over the towering Rolia. It had to reach up to the ceiling at best, completely inaccessible at worst. Either way this was at the core of it, the motherload: A large submersion like tube rendered immobile with the amount of wires that were hooked to it. Monitors displayed just about every reading possible--from some sort of SOUL monitoring, to a simple common heartbeat. Something was alive in that tube.

Something alive and…

“Is… i-is that a human?” Alphys voice seemed even smaller than usual.

A human?

Humans being the Underground was new, but to have one in some sort of containment? That was new. But that was also the issue.

Rolia stepped once, finding herself by the tube already. She ran her fingers along the glass, almost tracing the human’s features. The frail autumn hair, lanky limbs, sunken face… not quite the epitome of health, all in all. Just how long was this human in the tube? How long had they been in the Underground? How long had they been hidden?

“Sh-should we remove them?” The Royal Scientist asked, clicking her claws together. “Would it-it be safe?”

“I don’t know…” The other admitted before she turned on her heel, tail flicking off behind her. “I don’t know who put her in there, how long she’s been there, or how we could safely get them out….”

She started to scoop up the abandoned papers, hoping that any of the work might shed some light on the subject.She almost wasn’t surprised when most of them were blank or covered in odd symbols or code. Even the ones with information looked more foriegn than anything. Considering this was nothing new compared to the endless filing cabinets filled with the same sort of papers. The sound of draining liquid was quite new,considering it was probably one of the last things anyone expected. Rolia’s head snapped to the sound,papers long forgotten.

“I MAY HAVE PRESSED A FEW BUTTONS! BUT IT WAS ONLY A FEW!”

The fluid quickly drained from the tube, ending up evaporating the moment it hit the air. Rolia was quick to stand back in place in front of the tube. And she was thankfully ready to catch the human, when said creature immediately fell forward.

Frail.

Frail was the best way that the human could have been described as. Feeling how their skin merely stretched over their bones only caused more need for concern. Rolia held them close, slipping past any wires or fluid to the door.

“Dr. Alphys, are there any spare towels? Blankets?” She asked, headed out to the main room. The beds there should be more than suitable for holding them, let alone more comfortable. Rolia could also look the human over, make sure they didn’t need to figure out how to refill the tank. But in the meantime, she stripped herself of her lab coat, placing it over the shuddering body. “Papyrus, can you CHECK them, please?”

The skeleton did so without question. “WOWIE! THOSE ARE SOME INCREDIBLE STATS FOR A HUMAN!”

“What do you me-”

“600 HEALTH POINTS!”

For a human? Rolia must have made quite the face as Papyrus started again with the explanation, only for her to more or less tune it out in order to stay mostly focused on the human’s condition. Incredibly skinny--possibly, no, probably very malnourished, clearly weak… the only real question that she had was would the human wake up now?

The tell-tale click of the Royal Scientist’s feet sounded into the room. She was carrying an armful of both towels and sheets. After the amalgam incident, it didn’t surprise Rolia that plenty of both were in stock. 

All attention was drawn back to the human with the smallest of noises that came from them. Frisk slipped around the three monsters to look do their best to climb into the bed as well, more or less refusing the helping hand the skeleton offered. It wasn’t long before heavy lidded eyes looked up at the monsters. 

And she stared.

Well, they all stared; no one threatened to speak, let alone move. Frisk was the first to do anything, shuffling closer to their new acquaintance. The new human simply started at the little one, watching as they brought their hands close. There was little hesitancy as they signed a simple ‘hello’.

Tired eyes watched their hands before picking up her own hands. She repeated the sign back to the little one, followed by another few motions. ‘What… is your name?’

“DO ALL HUMANS KNOW HOW TO TALK IN HANDS?!” The skeleton exclaimed, turning to Rolia in exasperation. “HONESTLY… NOT EVERY MONSTER CAN UNDERSTAND IT!”

The new human let out a noise before doing their best to sit up, their body completely refusing. Rolia carefully pressed them to the bed again, using only the lightest of possible touches. But even with little effort or more instructions, the human laid back down. 

“You aren’t ready to sit all the way up right now. You’re still very weak.”

She hummed a soft response to the doctor, mostly paying her curiosity towards the other human. The two humans ended up holding somewhat of a conversation, or at least Rolia assumed so. Years of holing herself up had led to being more or less completely out of touch with more than one language. Science or magic didn’t really count as other languages, when so few actually understood anything she said. Sure there was Alphys, but she was more geared towards robotics or the more extensive Determination testing. Honestly, half the time that Alphys spoke to her about this stuff, it didn’t take long before her head felt like a bobble-head. 

Speaking of Alphys, she was doing her best to look through all the scattered papers. Even with what seemed to be numbers--marks?-- along the bottom of each sheet, it was no easier to even tell what order these pages were meant to be in. 

“W-What are we going to d-do with her?” Her words were normally shaky but this was something else. It sounded almost as nervous as when the Royal Scientist found out that Rolia had been coming and going within the True Lab freely--not that Rolia cared about what the scientist was up to with her experiments, amalgamates or not. “W-We can’t just keep her here.”

“I’ll take her.” It was without a missed beat that she answered. “For all intents and purposes it’s probably a better idea for one of us to keep her for now.” They didn’t know what sort of testing or experiments the human had gone through, or if it was even remotely safe to take them out in public.

Not to mention the embassy’s trust issues at this point.

“Y-yeah, that’s a good idea…”

Good idea or only option?

“I-I-I’ll update King Asgore on the situation…” She continued. “But w-w-what do I say?”

“I can handle that as well.” Rolia spoke carefully. She meant, in no way, to have it come across as if she thought that Alphys couldn’t handle it. “I have to write a report on what sort of state they’re in once I get them to Newer Home anyways. It’s almost already done for sending to the King.”

“But, I-”

“Dr. Alphys, respectively, allow me to handle the boring stuff such as writing documents.” She offered the slightest of bows, mindful of wandering wings. “Besides, you have your hands full with moving your Lab to the surface as well, not to mention the Amalgamates.”

Truth be told they were _all_ busy. Even this little ‘tour’ was meant to go over a checklist and make sure that nothing was left behind before the doors were locked for good.

“HUMAN! THE DOCTOR HAS INSISTED THAT YOU LAY DOWN!” Papyrus’ almost ear grating noise of a voice pulled her back to the matter at hand. “AND THERE IS NO MONSTER BY THAT NAME HERE!”

“Papyrus, dear, please. Inside voice.” As much as he could muster, at least-- Wait. “Can you… understand them?”

“OFCOURSE~” He exclaimed before doing his best impression of a stage whisper. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS UNDERSTANDS MOST FORMS OF COMMUNICATION! EVEN THE STABBY KIND!”

There’s a snort from Frisk before they signed a simple ‘S-A-M’ before pointing to the new human.

“HUMAN SAM HAS BEEN ASKING WHO WE ARE!” He continued. “I AM THE GREAT AND WONDERFUL PAPYRUS THE SKELETON OF COURSE! I AM A FORMER MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD!” He boasted before expectantly looking to the scientists for their introductions.

“Oh, I-I-I’m Alphys. I’m the King’s scientis-”

“ROYAL SCIENTIST!”

“-r-right. Royal Scientist…” Talk about looking more awkward than you sounded. “I sp-specialize in-in robotics and-”

“UNDYNE!”

“Papyrus!”

At least the human-Sam-looked relaxed still. She’d barely tensed up at the mention of ‘king’ but quickly seemed to swallow that down. Rolia neared her by a step, careful of her +20 intimidation factor. Sometimes being tall enough to tower over even the Greatest Dog had its perks. Meeting new and potentially scared humans was not one of those. She gave her usual slight bow, resting her hand over her chest.

“And I am Dr. Rolia. I’m some random monster that Alphys found wandering around in the labs.” She couldn't help but smile some. “I specialize in human studies.” Well, mostly video games, but she wouldn’t say that just yet. 

Sam just stared a bit before waving to her. Good. She wasn’t afraid then. So far, so good.

“I will be looking after you for the time being, if that is alright with you?”

The human only gave a nod of understanding. They didn’t seem all that concerned for the monsters being there, nor did they seem even remotely bothered with how they were practically naked besides a towel and a blanket that covered them.

“Do you mind if I pick you up?” She continued, holding out her hands carefully.

Again, only a nod.

Well… this was going to be a challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I've written a fic with such vigor. I hope it it at least sounds decent! I hope you have a wonderful time period!


	3. Chapter 3

A challenge indeed.

It was probably the heat that had calmed her. Soft scented bubbles made entirely of the gentlest soaps available floated about to a whimsical, unheard song. The foamy suds washing away even the smallest drop of whatever fluid from the tube that remained. Sam sunk further into the tub, but not too far that the hands running a pouf over her skin could not reach. There wasn’t much that  _ did _ come off, but the water was slowly turning a myriad of colors.

Rolia scooped up a bit more water, gently running it over the scarred skin. Battle heavy scars rested along the entire length of the human’s back, dragging down from the agrily weeping wound on Sam’s neck. Whatever the human had gone through it wasn’t good--nor was it merciful. Time wise, Rolia knew that Sam had probably entered the Underground sometime after the King started collecting SOULs. 

Her hands didn’t hesitate much to run deft claws through the tangled mop of hair. Rolia had to hold back a confused squeak when more than a small handful of hair came with it. Humans surely were  _ NOT _ meant to shed like this, right? None of her research showed that the little amount of hair they did have was supposed to just… fall out.

Sam only sat there, staring at swirling colors and only moving when prompted to. Rolia had already been surprised when Sam was able to stand so soon after being removed from that tube. It definitely surprised her now as she was able to stand unassisted to get out of the tub. She also had to be glad that Sam didn’t react poorly to the bath in general. Granted monsters had tubs in the Underground, but they were usually reserved for the more aquatic types. Even with those odds it was very likely that Sam had been bathed in one when she was younger.

Rolia carefully ruffled up the little one's hair in the soft towel she’d previously gotten out for Sam. The mild brushing had knocked out enough hair that she worried to the core that if she dried the hair too hard, she’d end up with a bald human. But thankfully no such thing happened, allowing her to step away long enough to grab the shirt and shorts she’d gotten out for Sam to wear. It was very unlikely that anything of hers would fit Sam, but at least she’d be covered and warmed. The human was thankfully easy to show how to dress, even if it was just a shirt… dress…

Sam stood in the middle of the bathroom, squishing her feet into the fuzzy rug that rested on the floor there. The monster frowned as she fought the depths of the cabinet for the first aid kit. Using magic to simply heal the human might cause her to panic when all she wanted was the human to stay calm. Healing magic was difficult to begin with…

So non-magic, boring old human medicines it was.

“I’m going to clean the wound on your neck. Is that alright?”

Just another nod.

To be fair, Rolia wouldn’t have been able to understand too much from her use of hands. A few books here and there and hopefully she’d come to understand… Rolia carefully dabbed off the slowly growing pinpoint pricks of blood along the marks. Said marks matched up on both sides of her neck. Whatever had struck her had to have had a significant amount of force behind it--enough to blatantly go through the vertebrae and muscles that resided there. However, whatever solution Sam had been sleeping in had somehow repaired most of the fatal damage. Rolia made a soft noise as she wrapped the wounds up carefully, hoping the bandages wouldn’t be too tight.

“There we go.” She commented, standing up and discarding the packaging. “Want to go see your room now?”

Sam looked up at her for the first time, confusion building on her face. Slowly her hands came up to sign something, most of which the monster could barely wake up. Something about it being her own room.

“Yep. Your own room.” She motioned Sam to follow, hoping she caught on.

Thankfully she did, holding onto handfuls of the shirt in either hand. Rolia started out, tail going back out to gently wrap around Sam’s middle. Her mother had done that when she was young, although it almost wasn’t funny that she pulled Sam along like that. She just couldn’t help it, Sam just felt like a small child that had suddenly woken up in a new body.

The walk to the guest room wasn’t long, as only three rooms were on the second floor, and the guest room was right next to it. Rolia carefully opened the door and flicked on the light, but not after a split second of fumbling for the light switch. She didn’t really ever use the lights, but Sam wasn’t exactly nocturnal nor even a monster. 

“This will be your room.”

It was probably the simplest room ever considering how little this room had been used. The bed was made up in an eternal sky blue set, setting lonely in the middle of the room. Other than a nightstand, it was the only thing in the room.

“I know it isn’t much, but the bed is super comfy…”

Her tail moved from holding the human to carefully nudging her forward and into the room. Sam looked about the room, quickly deciding to merely sit on the bed to look up at Rolia expectantly for instructions. Rolia hummed a little as she watched Sam sit there. She almost looked uncomfortable to just sit there and have nothing to do.

‘... test?’

The monster had to blink. A test? What kind of a test were they expecting? Were they bored? Scared? Did all they know was testing? Rolia’s tail curled around herself in thought. This human was so strange…

“Well, actually, yes. There is a test I can have you do.” She eventually spoke, popping a notebook and pen out of her inventory. Rolia held it out to Sam. “Can you write your name at the top of that page for me?” It was worth a shot to see if she could read or write, if anything it would make things easier to figure out, since they’d be able to understand one another easier.

The human took the paper first, looking it over before taking the pen. She ended up scratching the pen against the paper before frowning. Rolia watched in amusement as Sam did her best to figure out this ‘minor’ puzzle. There was almost a chuckle when the human had triumphantly uncapped the pen and scribbled a dark blue flower on the page. Sam settled back down to eventually write a simple ‘S-A-M’ on the page.

Okay, so she can write. Rolia beckoned her to hand over the notepad before writing a single question on the page.

**_What should I know about you?_ **

Rolia doodled a simple smiley face after that--humans did that seem less threatening, right? She handed it back, only to earn a look of bewilderment.

“Write as much or as little as you want to. I’ll come back to get it in a few hours, okay?” She backed to the door. “You are welcome to take a nap or explore after you’re done.”

She slipped out of the room, careful to shut but not accidentally lock the door. She didn’t want to trap Sam anywhere, not after where she was found. With any luck, Sam would get comfortable enough to  _ want _ to explore. Heels clicked on the tile floor as she brought herself to the kitchen to check for her food supply status.

Unsurprisingly terrible.

While it probably looked like a smorgasbord for a dust bunny, the hotcat and three cracker packets did not a human meal make. She  _ could _ blame it on being so busy with moving the labs and such, but that would only be some of the truth. The other half would be the typical work addicted forgetting to eat. That and the fact that she ate out more times than not when it came to when she wasn’t working.

Grillby’s it was.

Not that there weren't any other monster friendly food places, but after decades of being her favorite greasy restaurant, it would always be her first stop. Too bad they didn’t deliver. Maybe she could just shoot him a text to see if he wouldn’t mind bringing some over after hours. She was tempted to just scoot over and pop in, but she really didn’t want to leave Sam home by herself.

Rolia closed the fridge with a bump of her hip, pulling out her phone to send out a few texts. One reply to Papyrus, letting him know Sam was safe and sound. Another to Alphys, promising an update on the paper’s status. They’d be done by morning anyway. A third text went to Grillby, knowing that he likely wouldn’t respond, for a few orders of food to be brought over on his way home if he didn’t mind. The device was quickly discarded on the counter as she moved to where her laptop sat, sliding into the dining room chair.

Time to get started…


	4. Chapter 4

“Time to take a break.”

The words, jarring and surprising as they were, were smooth and familiar. They made her look up, eyes darting from the screen to the owner of the voice. The stark, bright comparison to the empty and dark house almost made her jump, but she was able to relax once she came to her senses.

“Grillby?” She quickly saved her document, switching to her desktop and turning to him, ignoring the bonfire on a starry night that was hidden behind thousands of files. “W-W-What are you doing here? How did you get in!?”

The bartender quirked an eyebrow, holding up the house key dangling from his own key ring. Right. She’d given him that ages ago, not that her door was really ever locked. He concluded his moving speech with a clack of his bags being set down.Oh, right, food. She’d texted him, what? An hour ago? She let her eyes drift to the nearest clock, meaning back to her computer. Rolia poked the screen. That time couldn’t be right.

“Have you been writing this whole time?” The bags of food were once again picked up to appropriately put them away in the fridge.

“Um…”

“Rolia…” He spoke with a sigh. “I don’t see you for three weeks and you’re still doing… homework once you  _ do _ come home?”

It may have been teasing, but the truth of it hit hard. Had it really been three weeks since she’d been out of the lab? It didn’t feel like it…

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright.” He moved to sit opposite her, arms carefully folded away from any paperwork. “So, what’s got you all frazzled?”

She scoffed. “I’m not frazzled.”

“Rolia, I’ve known you for 3 centuries. You’re frazzled and stressed, and still not any good at hiding it.”

Damnit. How much could she tell him? Hey there’s a human in my upstairs guest room. We don’t know if she’s been brutally tested on or even if she’ll live. We also have no idea where or why she was in the Underground, or why or who tested on them. Nerves worked themselves into a bundle, only waived when a cup of swirling auburn liquid was set down in front of her. She looked up with a start.

Grillby smiled at her, sitting down with his own cup. “So, different question then… who’s in the guest room upstairs?”

“A guest of course.” She carefully spoke over her cup.

“What kind of guest?”

“A very scared one.”

“What are they scared of?”

“Well, they’re more confused than scared, but I’m concerned she  _ is _ scared.”

“She? A monster?”

“A human.”

That definitely caught his attention. “Another child?”

“Well, she was probably a child when she fell into the Underground, but she’s probably in her late teens or early 20s by now…”

“How was she hiding all this time?” Someone should have noticed her after at least 10 years.

“We found her in Dr. Alphys’ lab. She has no memories of how she got there.”

“So she’s here now?” He asked, nursing his cup. “Is that going to be okay?”

They both knew why he’d asked. Ever since the monsters had come to the surface, the humans’ Embassy had been breathing down their necks about everything possible. The experiments, blue prints, magic, fighting, education, food-- anything. Clothes had been mandated, IDs issued, magic restricted, and even now the King, Former Queen, and child Ambassador (And honorary Skeleton ambassador) were almost always busy fighting off issues, trying to get even the slightest more lee way.

“I… don’t know. But we can’t really do anything until we know more about the situation.” There’d be hell and high water should they come to the embassy once again without the full story. They’d all learned their lessons with the amalgamates.

“We’ll figure it out.” He told her softly, the weight of the day finally catching up.

Rolia smiled a bit, taking another sip of her rose tea. “How was work?”   
  
Grillby shifted and pulled out a wad of cash and set it on the table. “Humans really like alcohol.”

She couldn’t help but have a toothy grin. “Is that just the tips?”

“I have to already put another order for Gerson’s moonshine again. Humans really like monster strength alcohol.” He put the money back away, slouching into his chair further. “Business is good at least.”

“That’s always good. Maybe you could afford a day off then?”

“Says the one who never eats or sleeps until reminded.”

And it made her smile. Maybe it was just knowing that someone cared, or maybe just knowing someone missed her while she was gone--even if it was just for the sake of her presence at the bar. It felt like her work was maybe worth it.

Tiny footsteps made their way into her ears, marking her turn expectantly to the archway. Seems like the human decided it was safe enough to let her curiosity run wild. There  _ didn’t _ seem to be much resistance in leaving the room or managing to make it down the stairs. Good, no restraints or injuries there. That was definitely a good sign. Grillby turned after a moment, tilting towards the door; must have heard it too.

“It’s alright, Sam. You can come out if you want to.” She called calmly, doing her best not to be the towering bat monster that she was. It was worth a try at least.

Crystal clear eyes peeks around the corner of the arch way. No fear, no contentment, no joy… only wonder of what lay before them.

“I promise it’s safe.”

Probably at least.

Grillby stared for a second before motioning the little one in. Rolia watched as the human slowly ended up near the table. It hardly took any thought for her. Maybe that was why. Instructions gave her a clear decision. She didn’t have to risk any trouble just to follow directions.

But the fire monster smiled at curious fingers poking his exposed arms. Sam was almost in surprise that touching ever burning flames didn’t singe her fingers or burn her hair. The monster just seemed to be so interesting. But Grillby only held out his arm so that the little one could poke and prod.

“Hello, Sam.” He spoke softly, smile equally as soft on his features.

She stared in silence, looking up from where her hand was.

The cup--empty as it already was-- was abandoned in lieu of rusty hands. Grillby moved them as he spoke, hoping that there wouldn’t be a translation error. “Hello. My name is G-R-I-L-L-B-Y.”

Sam watched, perking up that someone clearly spoke hands aside another human. More people could understand her! The human happily responded ‘S-A-M’. There was so much enthusiasm that Grillby could barely keep up. ‘Where is G-A-S-T-E-R?’

The fire monster turned and looked to Rolia. “Do you know of a ‘Gaster’?”

Rolia tilted her head. “No? Who are they?”

Grillby looked to Sam for her cautious answer. “She says a doctor--or was that nurse?”

“I really don’t think I know anyone by that name…” She picked her brain just in case she was missing something. Nope. No where did that name make sense or even exist to her knowledge. Of course, that was just  _ her _ knowledge. There were definitely more people from the Underground that could have told them who Gaster was. Right? “Maybe King Asgore knows.”

“Ask him when you turn in that report.” He told her. “Since I’m guessing you won’t let Dr. Alphys do it anymore still.”

“After three times of turning raunchy fiction instead of her reports:  **_no_ ** . I am not letting her handle them again.”

One too many ‘lemons’ being sent out.

That reminded her to look into the scientist’s social media for any more stories. They were fun to kill time with when she was trying to get some sleep. At least until there was no more.

Sam’s curious hands flew to attempt to find Grillby’s ears or nose, since glasses were carefully sitting on them. Talk about a curious cat. At least nothing here would likely kill her. The monster didn’t seem to mind, simply allowing the hands to roam among the crackling flames. It was almost… amusing. Grillby’s patience for children always amused her.

“So, Sam… are you hungry?” He slowly asked, making sure that he was audible through both of her hands pressing against his jaw.

Without another instruction or word, Sam pulled her hands away from him, quickly gathering the forgotten about paper and held it out to Rolia. There wasn’t much written on it, but it was more or less legible. Rolia took it carefully, thanking her for it.

She almost wasn’t surprised when the human only looked at her expectantly for the results of her little ‘test’. Rolia looked it over, skimming through the crudely structured essay. Sam was seemingly pleased at the smile and nod that followed.

“Tell Grillby if you are hungry or not.” She tried.

Instead Sam only nodded and turned to the bartender, holding out her hands for something. Maybe she was not sure if it was ready? Or not sure if there was anything? Or did she not understand the instructions? Was this how she was taught to wait for food before they found her?

But Grillby only smiled and stood, getting one of the meals he’d brought and handed the clamshell to-go box to her. Rolia couldn’t help but chuckle softly at the ‘new puzzle’. Sam stood in place as she worked out how to open the box, throwing her free hand up in a cheer once it opened. She plopped down on the ground, humming to herself as she’d managed to get the prize from within. Rolia turned to her computer once more, starting to document the things on the page that Sam had filled out. The lack of, well, much, told her more than it should. 

Children usually had wants. A toy, a hug, a special treat, a new game. Adults usually focused on needs. Housing, food, money to pay for them… everyone had wants. Everyone had needs. From the simplest monster Candy to a roof over their heads. Even now, several ‘thank you’s in, Sam seemed more than content being where she may, squished against the wall. Even the way she ate was more.. Uncivilized than most. More like how an animal would eat food just given to them. Blatant disregard for sitting at a table, any utensils would have probably been discarded in favor of eating with her hands. 

“Sam, do you know what a ‘fork’ is?” Rolia quietly aske.

The wonder that followed earned a lovely unhappy groan. She would take that as an absolute ‘no’. So she stood and went to get one. At least Sam was so very excited and willing to learn and explore. The fork was snatched up and inspected. Most of her silverware contained every mark possible of their use. To be fair, they were found in the dump, just like everything else.

“You use it like a pen to eat with.” She explained, mimicking the action.

Sam stared blankly before stabbing it through one of the fries still in the container. Leave it to Grillby to bring over the worst of foods they could have eaten. Well, carbs were apparently good for starving Humans. Hopefully monster food carbs were okay. There was definitely not enough testing on the subject. Some monster foods were known to cause health boosts in humans, some even battle effects. Others caused intense sickness. Many of the flora even were highly dangerous for humans to touch let alone ingest. 

She would just need to be overly careful with what was served. Surely Frisk would know exactly what a human could, eat, right? Or did children have different metabolizing abilities?

Rolia huffed a moment, more research would need to be done then. At least she had the ability to do so now. The tray was held back out to Grillby once most of the food was finished from it. Only a few of the soggier fries remained. 

“Sam, would you mind answering some questions?” Grillby spoke slowly. “If you think you could handle it?”

Another nod.

“Where are you from?”

Her hands fumbled a little, settling in a simple ‘Above’.

“The surface?”

Another nod.

“Did you fall down here?”

Nod.

Grillby hummed. “Did a monster hurt you?”

This time Sam did more than a nod. A few signs and that was it. ‘It was him.’

“Him? The one who put you in the tube?”

A curt shake of the head followed that one.

So, there was a good and a bad monster, then. One that harmed and one who tried to fix it. Datawise, it was this ‘Gaster’, but that didn’t matter too much. Ghosts of the past weren’t nearly as visible as ghost monsters. Anything could have potentially given her that wound. Children were more than prone to accidents. But just being prone to accidents did not make that sort of injury. She definitely didn’t like how this was looking in terms for the little one. Unfortunately the truth seemed to be locked behind a vault with no key. 

Or, at least, the key was with a disappearing skeleton monster.

And she paused.

How did she know it was a skeleton?

Was she sure she didn’t know this… Gaster?

“How do you know how to sign?” Grillby asked, still signing away. Maybe Rolia would learn from watching enough. If anything at least she would slowly understand different words.

‘Gaster’. Very short on words this child was.

“Before or after you got… hurt.”

One hand slowly reached for the bandages on her neck. Her eyes planted themselves firmly in the ‘staring at the floor awkwardly’ club. Before, then. It was likely she wasn’t exactly conscious for after.

“I think someone deserves a nice cream after being so good at answering everything.” Rolia claimed, tearing herself from the table. That was enough stress on the human for the moment. Her hands roamed the back of the ice box until she found the last of the frozen treats she had. “There we go.”

For once, Sam seemed to completely understand what was going on, as she happily took it, plopping back down to eat it. She stared at the two of them in utter silence.

This was going to be… something.


	5. Chapter 5

The darkness almost always held the truth.

Be it whispers or visions, or the occasional ghost. Ghostly whispers or whispers in visions… The Darkness held the most reasonable of comforts for her. No lights to blind, no unusual noises--or at least ones that she couldn’t place. And mostly: no one could chastise her on her habits. She was always so busy with her self inflicted schedules that she generally simply forgot about all her needs in life.

It was always easier to type out reports. It saved time, paper, ink. Considering how hard ink and decent paper had been to find in the past, maybe it had started out of necessity. But even now she was toiling away, hunching her way into a small enough ball to properly type. Even the modified laptop or keyboard Alphys had given her offered little reprieve from the impending scrunching.

But it was never a problem. 

This was what she enjoyed doing. Research, studying, theorizing. Figuring out how the world worked. The possibilities of the world were endless, and no matter how much she learned she supposed--no, knew-- that she had only scratched the surface.

Even when it left her in Darkness.

But that was where she was home.

Resonating knocks killed any sense of peace in the room. Definitely the knock of someone who demanded attention. Stark and to the point. She stood, back hunched over until she was mostly up. Rolia dusted off her front, smoothing down the long wrinkled top. In case this was the King, she wanted to look decent enough. Had it been a normal night, she would have been more than confused of a visitor so late into the night, if not on edge. 

But this wasn’t normal.

The sleeping human upstairs and her situation was far from normal. 

So she was quick to the door, taking only a passing second to fix straying strands. 

Well, she was glad she was looking decent. 

It wasn’t the King, but someone just, if not more, important. The BOSS monster only offered the politest of smiles before quietly asking to be let in. Rolia slipped to the side before raising her hand to bow to the Former Queen. 

“Oh, dear, you know that such formality isn’t necessary anymore.” Toriel told her, holding out the wicker basket so carefully cradled in the crook of her arm.

“You may have left the throne but you are still my Queen, Lady Toriel.” She spoke, hand hesitating to go down. She took a second to force it down, grabbing onto the end of her shirt to ensure that it would stay there.

“Don’t be silly.”

“Yes, Lady Toriel.”

A sigh.

“I brought you some pie. Frisk suggested I do.” The basket was finally taken. Rolia couldn’t help but take a breath of the highly regarded butterscotch pie. It must have just come out of the oven based on the warmth still radiating from it. 

“Thank you, My Lady.”

She did note the other’s disappointment and resignation that fell on Toriel’s face, but simply moved on to putting the baked good awake. She returned to offer tea, only to get a shake of the head.

“Unfortunately, I have only stopped by for work purposes.” Ah, that was right. Work. “I need to see the new human.”

“I understand.” Rolia gave a sweeping motion with her hand before turning towards the stairs. “This way. She’s in my guest room at the moment. It took a bit, but she’s finally asleep.”

But she knew she didn't need to worry. Even now, Toriel’s movements were nothing short of careful. Not even a single stair dared to creak in disapproval of being stepped on by the former Queen. Rolia’s tail flicked the hall light on as she passed, her hand already reaching for the door. With a loud creak the hinges sounded, the door finally opened. Light flooded into the room almost aggressively. 

“She is easily startled, so please be careful.”

But Toriel had already gotten halfway across the room, studying the sleeping child over. Even if Sam had woken from the noise or the new presence, she was refusing to show any signs of it. Instead she merely turned over and curled into the fluffiest comforter possible in the whole household. It had taken another three hours after Grillby finally went home for Sam to agree to go to bed but only with the claimed blanket prize and a bedtime story.

The few moment glance seemed to be enough for her as Toriel left the bedside, leaving the room in darkness once again. Rolia made sure the door was closed before turning to Toriel.

“I thought I would recognize her…”

“I’m sorry that you didn’t.”

“No, I  _ did _ .”

Rolia hesitated to ask, ending up simply following her down the stairs and back to the living room. The BOSS monster sat down, sinking into the couch with a heavy sigh.

“I think I’ll take that tea now…”

“Of course, my Lady.”

It concerned her to no end to see the other like this. But surely there was a reason for it. Rolia flicked the pot closed and switched the burner on. She couldn’t help the frown that grew even as the familiar scent of candied roses filled the air. This human was already proving to be quite the hassle--no, more like a complete anomaly in the systems of how things worked. Here’s someone new. Something new. If things weren’t already stressed, they surely were now. Rolia nearly jumped when the whistle from the teapot sounded. A spoonful of honey each before she cooped up the tray to take to Toriel.

“A spoonful of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon as usual for you.”

“Thank you, dear.”

It had been ages since the two of them had sat down to have a cup of tea together. It must have had to decades by now, maybe even closer to a century now. It was hard to keep in touch when the other person lived in solitude on the other side of the Underground. The Queen in her self banished state, and one scientist’s self inflicted isolation research time. It had once been one of her favorite past times: getting together in the bright field of flowers, sounds of children’s laughter and magic floating through the air.

But those were old times.

“When did you see her last?” It was everything in her power to avoid seeming as nervous as she felt. The amber liquid suddenly seemed very, very interesting.

“When she fell.” Toriel took a deep breath.

“I see…” So it had to be some point after the second child fell, then. It was Asgore’s actions then that drove the former Queen to step down and disappear. Her gaze dared not to look up, completely consumed with the shimmers swirling.

“She was only 5.”

Only…

“She was so small. So scared. She hurt herself on the fall down, although, I’m not sure how much of the damage was actually from the fall.” The Boss monster took a long, thoughtful sip.

“Someone… hurt her then?”

A solemn nod. “I was the first monster who she came across. It was very likely it was another human.”

Parents not being the best seemed to be a common theme for the young humans who ended up falling into the Underground. For some it was simply the odd mistake of taking their eyes off the little ones while on the top of a mountain known for disappearing beings, others were far more dire. Perhaps it was even better that the humans had fallen in, even if they never exactly got happy endings. 

“But sh- _ Sam _ , she was so bright. Bright and caring. Even when she was attacked or scared, she still did the best that her little broken soul could.” There was almost a wistful twinkle in her eye. “She stayed with me the longest, however, even she left. But she left me with a bodyguard and his children in tow. It seems that this world was too harsh for her.”

The scientist hummed before adding a softly. “A monster repaired her SOUL with part of theirs.” Rolia told her, watching her reaction morph from surprise to concern.

“How did you-”

“Papyrus told us their stats were higher than possible for a human with her SOUL trait.” 

It had involved that first Check, followed by several checks after that.By both Alphys and herself. Even now she was occasionally wishing to check. Just to make sure what she saw was what she actually saw.

“What are they?”

“I’ve got a print out from Dr. Alphys. Allow me to get it for you.” She stood quickly, rushing to the kitchen to retrieve the scrap of paper. They hadn’t let the humans leave the  true lab facility until they’d both been checked for any accidentally exposed sicknesses. Thankfully the two were clean, even down to SOUL stats. The only anomaly was quickly given a logical reason.

Well, a highly educated guess.

With a triumphant vocal fanfare, she held the prize scrap high. It was barely a hand’s size, scratchy paper. Rolia was quick to make it back to Toriel, presenting the paper with a smile. A smile that quickly melted into a frown with realization of what was still written on the page.

_ HP: 688 | DEF: ERROR| EXP: 55258 | LV: 66 _

_ THIS HUMAN IS NOT AFRAID. ONLY SLEEPY. _

Toriel blinked.

Took a sip.

And blinked again.

“Are you sure there was no… error?” 

“Other than her defense, no. That test was run 3 different times.” She started, continuing before the Boss Monster could retort. “As well as Dr. Alphys and myself. The results are accurate.”

“That child was afraid of spoons! She has no-”

“Those stats are likely not hers.” Rolia interrupted, quietly apologizing afterwards. “The monster who repaired her SOUL had them. Those stats are overriding her own… or combining, perhaps.”

“Over… riding?”

“In monsters with two or more SOULs, the more powerful of the group will take the forefront.” Not that they had a lot of material or subjects to monitor for this sort of condition. All they had was the research from the amalgamate experiments. Perhaps down the road they’d be able to figure out more defined answers, yet there was little promise in that regard.

At least the former Queen nodded. She seemed to fully understand, as much as there could be with such limited information. As soon as she could get more…

“You’ll keep me updated, yes?” Toriel spoke softly. “If she remembers anything or something changes?”

“Of course, my Lady.”

“Thank you, dear.”

She gave a smile.

“I miss being able to easily share a cup of tea with you.”

“You’re always welcomed to stop by when you can.”

“Well, the same to you.” Rolia shot back with a toothy grin. “Although our respective schedules are pretty busy nowadays.”

.

“Unfortunately. We had to stop Frisk from getting too much paperwork from the Embassy so they could focus on their homework.”

“I’m guessing the King stepped up to handle said paperwork, then?”

“Surprisingly.” There was almost a snide remark hiding in that tone of voice. She sipped slowly, pointedly. “I’m surprised he didn’t just let it pass to someone else.”

“Lady Toriel…”

“Alright, alright.” She gave the lightest of chuckles. 

Silence fell over the room, save for a steady electric hum or the occasional sip. Rolia gazed down at her drink and couldn’t help starting to calculate just how much tea she even had left. Grillby likely had used a few bags during his top by, and she’d used some just now. If she only made one pot a day she could manage another week--she figured. But then if Sam liked tea what did that mean for the supplies? Her brow furrowed at the thought. Didn’t she have to go to the store to get stuff more appropriate for the human anyway?

Goodness, suddenly having a child meant so much stuff.

How did Toriel just manage it? She never seemed bothered by anything when it came to ‘surprises’ or what have you.

She was so magical.

“I’ll bring you some of the spare books I got for Papyrus before he and Sans could watch Frisk.” The Boss monster set down the empty cup. “They were quite effective ‘manuals’ for him.”

  
“That would be most appreciated. Thank you.”

Because she definitely wasn’t prepared.

In the slightest.


	6. Chapter 6

She also wasn't particularly prepared for the resounding knocks that vibrated the entire front half of the house.

The noise had made her jump, nearly out of the seat. A cup of noodles tumbled over, cold broth spreading over every paper document scattered on the table. Rolia groaned and grabbed the nearest towel to toss atop the spreading mess before quickly saving her document. It was only then, while the aging computer struggled to save her 90 something-odd document, that she noticed the time. It was after sunrise. How did she not notice the giant ball of light in the sky?

But she shrugged to herself and cleaned herself up. Too many stray noodle ends were on her shirt for her  _ not _ to say she wasn’t eating while working again. The last thing she needed for her appearance as a scientist was to look incredibly disheveled. Whoever was at the door banged once again, earning an annoyed hiss from her as she finally opened it.

“GOOD MORNING, DR. ROLIA!”

She almost took a step back.

“hey.” The smaller, much more soft spoken skeleton said. “...tori said you needed these so p-”

“I DETERMINED THAT BRINGING THEM HERE MYSELF WOULD BE BEST!” Papyrus announced, holding up the large collection of books so carefully cradled in his arms. They were everything from safety to bathing to mental care. There were also a few cookbooks tucked into the bottom of the stack. Rolia barely had time to move before the bombastic skeleton pushed past her to set the books down on the coffee table. The  _ thud, snap _ _ , _ _ ,  _ and slight  _ crack _ made her wince slightly. “WHERE IS THE HUMAN SAM?”

“prolly sleepin’ bro.” Sans gave the scientist a slight nod as he passed through to the living room.

Rolia closed the door after the two had entered. “Yes, Sam is still asleep.” Probably. She hadn’t really seen her yet. “I’ll go check on her, if you don’t mind waiting down here?”

While Papyrus was far too busy more or less running around on the main floor, eventually settling in front of the TV and rifling through the terribly organized games, Rolia hurried up the stairs. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a scared human dreading her return. Hopefully Sam was simply still asleep, dreaming of happy things.

She hesitated at the door, frowning at the loud bangs and clangs of the living room, cementing herself to dealing with them later. It was going to be alright, but she was hoping that nothing would startle her. So she opened it slowly.

It was just a morning full of unexpected things, it seemed.

Sitting up in her bed, sheets neatly made underneath her, Sam had spread four hefty books out to seemingly attempt to read. The books were some of her fallen textbooks on a variety of subjects, mostly about weather and things of the like. Sam looked up at the door’s cry, almost immediately panicking when realising who was at the door. She scrambled to get up, holding out the messily collected books to Rolia.

She took the books in momentary confusion before chuckling. “Good morning, Sam. When did you come down? Was I still working?”

A small nod. ‘B-O-O-K”

“You could have read these downstairs, you know.” But she smiled, “Papyrus, the skeleton you met at the lab and his brother are here to see you.”

Rolia didn’t want to bother assuming that they were just running errands to Toriel for nothing more than a favor. Especially if Sans tagged along. Only the older skeleton made it by if it was something important or he didn’t feel like shortcutting home after a work filled day. At least he usually warned her before just showing up--not that he didn’t already know that the place was nothing short of an organized mess. It was no better than his own room. 

After the books were carefully shifted out of both her hands, Rolia held out one to Sam. “Want to go see them?”

And she had to smile. 

Sam pulled on her hand as she slipped past Rolia, the slightest of smiles starting on her still tired face. Rolia was quickly yanked out the door and down the stairs. Sam looked more than pleased to go and visit the skeletons. Perhaps she felt comfortable with them? It would make sense if the scientist that Sam spoke about was also a skeleton. That and knowing that Papyrus was the same one that she'd known from waking up in the facility. At least Sam was comfortable in one way or another. Hopefully that comfort could hold fast. The human only relaxed on her quick movements once she was at the bottom, seemingly taking a moment to catch her breath.

The two skeletons in the living room stared back at the human’s unwavering gaze, although, surprisingly, neither of them moved closer to Sam; only turning in their seats--one on the couch, the other still on the floor, hands gripping several game cases. Looks like Papyrus was once again in the middle of putting the correct discs in their matching cases. The skeleton was welcomed to it, Rolia surely wasn’t going to do it anytime soon.

“HELLO HUMAN SAM!” Papyrus announced. Rolia’s hands flew up to cover her own ears against the sudden noise of his extremely… loud….  _ Wonderful _ voice. “WE HAVE COME TO SEE YOU!”

“... sup?”

And Sam smiled.

It was small and almost unseen for the moment, but she carefully pulled away from her one safety net to near the skelebros. It was clear from Papyrus’s shifting that he was actively refusing to just jump up and pull Sam into one of his infamous crushing hugs. Rolia made down the last couple of steps safely, smiling herself, and shooting the two of them a thankful glance for not suddenly descending upon the small human.

Perhaps she spoke too soon.

“HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY, HUMAN SAM?!” Papyrus spared no more. His shuffling quickly turned to unable to hold back, jumping up and crossing the room to the human. “AND DO NOT FORGET THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND YOUR HAND SPEECH!”

Sam smiled widely at the reminder. She mostly just gave a simple sign, making her movements as small as possible. It was almost as if she was embarassed to have to talk like that.

“I AM GLAD YOU ARE FEELING GOOD!” Before anyone could interrupt the little human was quickly picked up. She let out a small squeak at being scooped up, yet didn’t seem to be in the slightest bit upset. “I READ SO MANY BOOKS ABOUT SOUP TO HELP YOU! I HEARD SOUP IS GOOD FOR SICK HUMANS AND SICK HUMAN SOULS!”

“...hey, bro, maybe use your ‘inside rolia’s house voice’.” The smaller skeleton stated.

“OH! RIGHT!” Papyrus quickly did so, bringing his voice right down. “BECause of her ears… I apologize, Dr. Rolia!”

Rolia only gave a smile to the two before dropping a hand from her chin. ‘Thank you.’ She only knew so much of hands, not nearly enough to figure out how to properly understand Sam right now. There was hardly any memory of learning it, considering it was so very long ago.

Strange.

Who in the Underground needed her to learn… some hands?

“Human Sam! You should meet my brother!” Sam was gently set down, given a moment to right herself on her still slightly shaking legs, then shown to the still lounging one. “His name is Sans!”

Sans gave Sam a smile, well, a bigger grin than normal. Sam blinked when the skeleton eventually held out his hand for her to shake. She just stared at it for a moment. Rolia almost intervened, but hesitated, wanting to see how she was going to end up reacting. If her shaking got any worse, the scientist would step in. Sam held out her hand, closing the gap between the two of them. Rolia smiled a bit, at least she wasn’t scared.

Although there was a strangled confused noise when Sam completely avoided the hand in favor of smushing her fingers against the surprisingly malleable cheekbones. The bat monster steeled herself from laughing by reminding herself to find the diagram of skeletons for Sam to look over. Hopefully that would quell some of her curiosity.

“I wanted to tell a skeleton pun,” Sans grinned around the hands, “but I d _ on’t have the guts _ for it.”

“SANS! Do not scare her off with your awful puns-”

Small, broken giggles erupted into the air. There was a serious pause in the room. 

To be fair, no one was expecting the human to even understand the pun, let alone laugh at it.

“oh, but she likes me being so pun-ny.” He leaned forward a bit so Sam could look, but jumped when a hand was pushed into a socket.

“Sam! We don’t just stick hands or fingers into things…” Rolia was quick to gently guide Sam’s hand away from the poor invaded socket. “It’s rude.”

The human frowned but definitely apologized the moment after the bat monster let her go. Sans only chuckled. “...jus’ like a babybones.”

“But she is not a child!” Papyrus tilted his head a bit. “Nor a skeleton!”

“No, but she shouldn’t stick her hands in things without permission like a baby would.” Rolia chuckled.

But thinking about it, it really only made sense. Sam had to have been put in the tube when they were nothing but a child, and left there for 15 or so years without any input from the outside world. Nothing but darkness and silence. 

But at least she wasn’t afraid.

Rolia had initially been worried about the child’s potential fear about monsters. She hadn’t been in the Underground during the best of time, and had clearly gotten hurt as well. Injured badly enough to warrant needing such drastic medical attention. But from her last two reactions, she was starting to assume that Sam was going to do just fine. So long as she didn’t run across whichever monster had hurt her. Perhaps, even, Rolia could manage to get more information on this violent monster. Hopefully it would be easy to avoid said monster in the future.

But it didn’t take a scientist to figure out who it might have been.

Who it probably was.

“I’ll go see what refreshments I can make for us. I know tea isn’t your favorite, Papyrus.” Rolia called as she started to the kitchen. Not that she even had much tea to work with regardless. It wouldn’t be a waste on good friends, yet she didn’t wish to brew a whole pot if she was going to be the only one to drink from it.

The sound of more broken giggles filtered in through the entirety of the kitchen. It was such a lovely sound, pure joy in the face of what was a terrible past. The sound of child-like wonder and kindness. It honestly made sense for the human’s dominant SOUL trait.

Her hands deftly pulled the packages of cocoa down from her cabinet, ripping them open to pour into three different mugs. She wasn’t going to bother with a mug for Sans as he usually rooted around her fridge for whatever tomato product she managed to have on hand. But for the ones that were having hot cocoa a pot of water was set on the stove.

“so, adoptin’ strays now, huh?”

The rifling through the slightly more full fridge did not surprise her. Nor did the click of the condiment container. Already into the goods it seems.

“i didn’t take you for someone who picked up stray, curious kittens.”

“And I didn’t take  _ you _ for someone who cared about anything but your brother to get out of bed before 3 pm.”

“oh, pardon my care that you are taking in potentially dangerous humans into your care.” The grin only widened around the ketchup bottle.

“Sans, I appreciate your concern, but we both know I could have handled it if she was dangerous.” She snatched up the water before the kettle started whistling. “Unless you think this is somehow that child from your nightmares.”

“nah, i know it ain’t them. different soul traits ‘nd all.” He hummed against his bottle.

Rolia poured the mugs full of hot water, mixing in the powder and marshmallow eggs. “Run a full CHECK on her, then?”

A long sip came as a reply.

She went for the smaller cookies in her cookie jar, inwardly groaning when it ‘moo-ed’ at her. One day she’d get  ██████ back for finding her the terrible gift. The damned hungry cow mooed every time she put goods in or took them out. A good way to keep her eating properly at least: give her something that made an obnoxious noise every time it was used.

“i really came to see who the kid was. surprise, i know.”

“And?” Rolia set the treats on a plate, pleased that it surprisingly matched her mugs.

“i’ve met her before.”

And she paused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I am actually surprised that this story was even noticed! I hope you're having a wonderful day!


	7. Chapter 7

“i’ve met her before.” Sans repeated.

“Well,” The first words out of her mouth just had to be cautious, of course. “That makes you and Lady Toriel both.” 

“well, she prolly actually knew her name an’ all.” His gaze found familiarity with counting the tiles on the floor. “all i knew about her was that she was human.”

Rolia finally picked the tray of goodies up to take them to the rambunctious group still in the living room. She motioned Sans to stay put before turning to deliver the goods. Sans only shot her a shrug and sipped from the bottle more, having to tilt back further. The two out in the living room collectively cheered when the refreshments were brought out, Sam accidentally flinging one of the empty cases. Rolia only chuckled, leaning down to return the half opened case. Some Disney it seemed. Sam was quickly and completely distracted when Papyrus handed her one of the mugs. She poked the marshmallows that were slowly blooming into the shapes of dinosaurs. An adorable distraction, one that she was glad that Sam had at the moment as she turned back to the kitchen.

Frankly she was surprised there wasn’t tomato paste anywhere.

“I suggest you don’t lie or hide the truth from me.” She stated outright, taking her own mug back into grasp. His known habit of hiding the truth was never really her favorite, but after several months and one day of coercing him into explaining, she finally understood. Between the nightmares and the reoccuring timelines, Rolia had stopped questioning his bad days. But she still didn’t like his lying or half truths. “You know I can find out the truth regardless of what you tell me.”

He took another thoughtful sip. “...don’t got much of a reason to lie right now.”

“Well, it definitely won’t help at least.” She took a sip of her own drink, relishing the warmth that spread throughout her core. “Neither does stalling.”

He hummed a moment, shifting his bony butt in the dining room chair. “i’ve met her before. didn’t know what her name was or how she got there.” Sans started to idly pick at the label on the ketchup bottle. “i found her in that room when i was exploring the lab. didn’t have anything better to do that day, and just wanted somewhere quiet to take a nap…”

So far nothing was unusual. That just sounded like something he would do: break into a top secret lab to find somewhere to hide out from Undyne and Papyrus long enough to get a good cat nap in. She idly stirred a clump of powder into the steaming liquid.

“i found that door and well, curiosity got the best of me.” He shrugged a bit. “everythin’ was so dusty and looked like no one had been inside for at least 10 years at that point. probably hadn’t, anyway. she was still sleepin’ in that tube, didn’t look like she’d been monitored in years. i asked alphys if she knew anything but nope, nada, nothin.

“so i started trying to investigate what i could. all the papers in the room were coded or too faded to read. not even that stupid flower knew how to read the code on it. eventually i just started worken the code on the documents out loud in the room. gotta say, she’s a good listener. got some of my best jokes from talking to her”

Rolia raised an eyebrow, a snort just barely hanging back. “I thought you already found a joke buddy. Did the door lady not appeal to you any more?”

“that whole thing started _after_ this. besides, i didn’t hafta worry about how terrible they were talking to a tube.”

She took another sip. “So, how come, if you knew about this human--and assuming this took more than one lazy afternoon--why didn’t you tell anyone about her?”

Almost like he blatantly ignored her, Sans continued. “and one day i get there and she’s sleeping like normal. halfway through my routine i look up and see these bright eyes staring back at me. i thought it was another one of my… dreams when i hear her knocking on the glass an’ trying to say something.”

“And you-”

“i left.”

“You left? And didn’t tell anyone? Not even me?”

“look, i--” He cut himself off to take a break. Rolia held back the urge to interrogate him further, simply watching him before graciously glancing away to offer some sort of security to him. Sans was probably already not too pleased about having to explain this. “-i didn’t want someone to take her to asgore.”

The air of defeat plastered against his tone so thickly it was a hair’s way away from being palpable. Rolia’s tail flicked in anticipation. Showing MERCY to a human during the time of the King’s declared war? 

“you saw the wound.”

And that was all he had to say on the matter.

“so i left and i never went back to see her.”

He ended his harrowing tale with a long sip. She picked up a cookie, nibbling the legs off the animal cracker as she cycled through the information. Something didn’t really add up, considering all. 

Probably to do with that missing scientist.

“Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

“i know you don’t remember much from before we unearthed you from the lab, but you were kinda being a cryptid in your office again.”

Well he had her there.

She hummed against the last of the cookie. Sans set his bottle down in lue of gazing to the two in the living room still. Little and loud giggles were erupting into the air with each unsuccessful attempt to tackle the large skeleton to the ground. Neither of them could help the grins on their face, not that they were hiding it.

“so what do we know about this kid?”

Rolia almost wasn’t surprised about the slight change of subject. No monster was really comfortable with admitting their fears or worries. Not even Sans was free of that. Sometimes she was sure he was the most worried about it. He had so much to worry about, after all. 

She hummed a bit, back leaning up against the fridge, wings spread on either side of her. Claws rapped against the mug in momentary thought before she spoke. “Not much, to be honest.” Rolia didn’t bother putting her drink down to answer, doing so quietly and quickly. It really wasn’t much. Found a human that was secreted away by a mysterious monster after nearly dying. The former queen met the human at least once, but let her go. The end. It was barely enough to warrant a three minute speech.

“so you just found her? don’t know anything about her?” He spoke it more like a statement than a question.

“I mean, she likes fries and burgers and reading.” She shrugged. “And apparently play wrestling.”

“and that asgore-”

“We haven’t confirmed it was him.” 

“there’s an easy way to figure it out-”

“No.”

“i mean, who else would have it been?” Sans lounged a bit in his seat. “his level doesn’t say he’s innocent.”

“Not many of us old farts are.” No, not since the war raged through the lang. More than a few monsters were dusted, and humans had perished by the handful. No, none of the older monsters were free of guilt. “Anyway, I have a request of you.”

“i’m not gonna jump out of a cake.”

“ _Sweet_ of you, but unfortunately it’s a little harder than that.”

“well there goes my plans for the weekend. i guess i’ll go figure out that code, then.” 

“Thank you.”

“got anything else for me to compare it to?” Sans stole one last lingering sip before calling it good for the morning. 

“You have access to my office and it’s stuff, computer included.” She moved to her work bag, pulling out her ID Card. Rolia held it out to him. “Still need to get you one of these. They already think I live there.”

He took the card gently, immediately storing it away with a wink. “but that takes the fun out of sneaking around and making you look like more of a workaholic than you already are.”

She gave him an eye roll, mentally jotting down to get Sans an ID anyway. He spent more than enough time roaming around the Lab, it would just make it easier for him to get around. She could even get him a terrible lanyard with bone puns all over it or actually take the time to fix up the scanners to register more than the half a hand it did of Alphys. The blistering heat of the Core had wrecked them beyond their regular capacity until they pretty much were just as effective as a lazy skeleton being a part of the royal guard.

And it didn’t surprise her when said skeleton was already gone when she looked back to him. 

“DOCTOR ROLIA! THE HUMAN SAM REQUESTS THAT YOU COME PLAY WITH US!”

It was a change to her norm, all of this, that is. Moving to the surface. Working officially as a scientist… finding humans… but it was not an unwelcome change.

“NYEH HEH! SHE IS TOO STRONG! SAVE ME DR. ROLIA!”

It was ….

Nice?

Yeah, nice.

She went with that.


	8. Chapter 8

“Please be as still as possible…”

She hated this.

Absolutely, positively hated this. No matter how gentle the hands were, no matter the extent that they went to try and make her comfortable, she still hated it. It being looking to change the bandages on her neck. Every touch or glance to the wound that was there made her fight off a flinch each time.

Rolia had been extra careful with everything--pulling Sam’s hair into a terribly cute bun, cleaning the wound with ‘Luke warmed’ water (who was Luke?), patting the wound dry… but she still wanted nothing more than to run away. She knew the bat monster wasn’t trying to hurt her whatsoever, but just taking off the coverings was more reminders than she wanted about the wound. Sam did her best to focus on the fluffy rug underfoot, still amused at how it squished between her toes. It was much nicer than any thoughts that cropped up about her neck.

She was especially happy when Rolia finally pulled away and discarded the trash. Well, at least there wasn’t any pain to worry about anymore, Sam figured. Pain was her least favorite thing ever, making her frown to even think about it. If she could, she would choose to forever stay somewhere with no more pain.

But life was like that.

Painful.

“How are you right now?” The words startled her out of her thoughts. Rolia, still crouched over, smiled down at her. “Not hurting?”

Sam went to sign but stopped. Right, this monster didn’t understand Hands that well. So she opted for a simple thumbs-up.

“Good. Need anything?”

She didn’t have an answer for that. She had many things right now. A room that was her own and was even wearing decent clothing. Things were fine. She had food today, somewhere warm to stay, getting to meet new people, even if she was sure she’d met this skeleton before she’d woken up in the white place. There hadn’t even been any fun tests today!

“Well, let me know, okay?”

But only a nod came. 

“Want to go back to Papyrus?”

Rolia’s hand was barely on the door handle when Sam tried to slip past her. She was bouncing on excited feet waiting for the door to open enough. Papyrus was fun! He could even lift her up high in the house! Once the door was open enough she was gone, skittering down the hall until she had to carefully take the stairs. She always had to be careful not to make too much noise or fall down the stairs. Making too much noise was bad. It made adults angry…

“HUMAN SAM!” Papyrus announced the moment his eyes caught hers. “I AM TERRIBLY SORRY FOR CAUSING ANY ISSUE!”

Sam was scooped up to the moment she was close enough. She couldn’t help a giggle, quickly covering her mouth to try and quell them.

“I AM GLAD TO SEE THAT YOU ARE ALRIGHT!” The wince from the eldest in the room made him realize, bringing his voice right down. He brought his hands up in a quick apology. “I will remember not to be so reckless in the future!”

The human only gave him a thumbs up. The wrestling had only caused minimum issues, namely a loosened bandage. Rolia already gave Papyrus an ‘appropriate’ lecture when she’d joined them. They were honestly surprised that the talk wasn’t loud or really long. Didn’t adults usually like yelling?

Sam was carefully returned to the floor with a small squeak from her. She gave a smile to Papyrus to let him know she was thankful. It was nice that another monster understood her. That made a total of three people! She didn’t even have to try and use her voice!

She wouldn’t admit it outloud, but she had tried talking already, this morning in face, before Rolia had gotten up to find her. She could barely get much of a sound out, much less comfortably. Even now it still burned fiercely in the back of her throat every time she laughed or even breathed too hard. 

There were several jingles on Rolia’s phone, causing ears to perk up. Her tail flicked out behind her as she turned to go through the very messy desk. Any sense of organization quickly went out the window in favor of shuffling everything to look for the dinging device. Sam giggled at the fanfare that followed. The bat monster was so silly sometimes!

The following moments of silence were quickly interrupted with cartoon style scrambling to shove every paper possible into the worn leather bag. Rolia couldn’t help the pale that came to her face. She wasn’t expecting  _ this _ . Nor was she expecting it so soon.

A glance was given to Sam, instantly frowning at the state of her dress. Just an old and very large, faded T-Shirt. To be fair, it was practically a dress on the frail human, but it didn’t work for how ‘normal’ humans dressed. She looked Sam over as the faintest of ideas churned.

“Papyrus?” She called, turning to where she’d last seen him. “A favor?”

“OF COURSE, DR. ROLIA!”

The scientist fought back a wince. “Do you mind checking the dryer for any clothes that Sans might have left for me to clean?”

A salute was given before he ran right off. She turned to the table again, going back to grabbing reports to stuff into her bag. She hadn’t prepared to be summoned by the King so soon--but word  _ did _ travel fast among monsters. It always had and likely always would. No big deal, just a change in plans.

One she hoped Sam would be ready for.

As much as she wanted to think well of King Asgore, and as much as she didn’t want to believe it… the outstanding evidence was relatively straight forward. Any judge, human or otherwise, would likely come to the same unfortunate conclusion:

Asgore had tried to kill Sam.

And Rolia hoped to high heavens Sam didn’t remember him.

But she couldn’t be so luck, could she?

“I WILL HELP HER GET READY, DR. ROLIA!” Papyrus bellowed as he returned, holding up the dryer’s prizes. “YOU CAN CONTINUE WITH YOUR REPORT COLLECTING!”

She was thankful he understood, grateful that he didn’t question either. The two skeletons never really did, just going with the flow in their own ways. She’d always been busy or what have you, and report days always seemed more chaotic than usual. Even so, they never bothered her worse than usual, sometimes even seeming to let up on her…

Rolia quickly sent a message off to Sans. Maybe he would see it, assuming his phone was on--and hopefully charged at that. If Sam reacted poorly to Asfore she wanted to be able to get her out of there ASAP. If he didn’t answer then this meeting would likely end very, very quickly.

The skeleton was knelt down in front of Sam, carefully tying up the sneakers she was now wearing. Rolia made a face at that. Did Sans just leave a while outfit here? He might as well leave spare socks everywhere here as well. Papyrus zipped up the thin hoodie, situating the still too big shirt to fit her a little better. At least she was looking a little bit more decent. She was going to need to check her money information to see if she could go get her some appropriately fitting clothes. 

One thing at a time.

“Are you ready, Sam?” She asked, pulling the bag over her shoulder. That should be more than enough reports to keep the King pleased about the laboratory's work. “We’re going to visit someone.”

That definitely seemed to catch her attention. Sam fidgeted immediately on the spot, hands pretty much flying to the hem on the hoodie.

“YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, HUMAN SAM!” Papyrus told her with a huge, beaming smile. “DOCTOR ROLIA WILL KEEP YOU SUPER DUPER SAFE!”

The words alone seemed to calm her.

“I CAN ALSO WALK YOU THERE IF YOU WANT ME TO!”

Did it just come naturally to him or was he trying really hard to be her friend. Either way, he clearly had her trust, Sam holding onto his hand like a life line. Rolia couldn’t help but spare a glance to her own hand. Was she not trusted the same? Was it all the questions? Was it because she was the ‘adult’? She ended up shaking her head. It didn’t matter. Sam was only staying with her until they found her family…

“LET US GO!”

At least the walk wasn’t far.

Heels clicked on the pavement, quickly lost among the idle conversations and passing faces. A brisk wind breathed across the land, bringing the crisp mountain air down from the summit. The sun above smiled on the recently freed, welcoming them once again to the world above.

But the faces soon grew sparse, giving way to the many freshly planted and tended foliage. Their pace had yet to fall behind, at least until Sam had to stop to look at all the pretty colors. Rolia had to fight back urging them to hurry. They didn’t need to. There was plenty of time, besides, this could just give the King more time with his actual duties before she interrupted him.

Sam thankfully didn’t linger around the flowers for too long. Rolia couldn’t help but appreciate the wonder that Sam held for new things. It was almost like anything and everything was new to her.

Must have to do with that sleep in the tube.

She reminded herself to look into that later.

Rolia took a moment to smooth out the front of her shirt. No matter the setting, she wished to still look presentable to the King. His say financed the laboratories, and she really didn’t want to ruin it for Alphys or anyone else.

Papyrus gave her a nod regarding her looks. Sam clung tightly to his arm, clearly not feeling too comfortable with what was going on. The bat monster bit her lip before rapping the back of her knuckles on the door. She wanted Sans to have been present, but at the very least the other skelebro was there. 

She turned back when the door opened wide, immediately raising her hand to her chest to bow accordingly. “Your Majesty.”

“Ah! Doctor Rolia! Welcome!” His voice was eerily chipper as per the usual. “You got here faster than I figured you would!”

“I came as quickly as I could get everything together.” Rolia stole a glance back to the human. Sam was doing her best to try and convince the skeleton to move away from the King. “I also brought the human, as per your request.”

“I hope that wasn’t too much trouble. Is this her, here?” He motioned to the little one.

“Yes. She’s a little out of it lately. I think it has something to do with how we found her.”

Sam froze the moment Asgore turned his attention completely to her. Even her breath had fallen shallow in the faintest attempt to not be there. The lifeline of safety tightened around her hand did it’s best to offer comfort to the human. 

“Howdy, little one! I am Asgore Dreemur. There is nothing to be afraid of-”

But the ear shattering scream said otherwise.


	9. Chapter 9

You can’t change the past.

No amount of screaming, kicking, or begging would change it. No hoping, no wanting, no willing--it was set in stone.

Sam’s scream pierced Rolia’s tender ears. The peaceful air among the flowers was quickly shattered, making her pressed back as far as she could be. Even Papyrus's hand was abandoned when her arms went up to block from whatever attack would come.

“Sam?”

It was the sound of a wounded animal that was back into a corner. A light whimper slipped from the human. 

“HUMAN SAM!” The skeleton quickly moved to her, kneeling in front of Sam. The utter fear on her face made him hesitate. “I KNOW HE IS LARGE AND SLIGHTLY FRIGHTENING, BUT-”

“Papyrus?” Rolia gently set a hand on his shoulder, stopping his sentence. “It may be best that the two of you go somewhere else.”

“ARE YOU SURE?”

Yes. yes she was. The scared, frail child was reason enough for her. Rolia hummed and grabbed her bag, rooting past twelve reports to find the equally worn wallet. “Here, do you mind helping her pick out some clothes in the meantime?”

The human was given a toothy smile before the plastic card being held out to them was taken. “I WILL DO MY BEST!”

There was a shared silence between the King and the scientist as Papyrus scooped up the human and left, taking the least amount of strides possible for him.

“I… suppose I was too scary for her right now.” Even so, the laugh that followed was almost hollow.

“I apologize, Your Majesty. I didn’t expect such a… strong reaction to simply seeing you.” Another bow. “I’m afraid to have overlooked that.”

Just a tiny, tiny lie.

“Don’t worry, Dr. Rolia.” He motioned her inside, turning to head back to the kitchen. “Would you like some tea?”

“As always, sir.”

The empty house was a familiar sight. Only a few pictures hung on the walls, most of the furniture looked completely unused--well, all except for the dining table. Every inch of space was covered in stack and stacks of paperwork. It didn’t even seem like Asgore knew what was in the room anymore.

“You can put the reports anywhere on the table if you can find space.”

That’s a challenge and a half waiting.

But she took it, gingerly wading through papers and stacking them accordingly. Hopefully whatever his terrible organization was hadn’t been completely ruined from her intervention. After a moment she’d placed another stack for him to go through.

“I saw the message that you’ve finished moving out of the Underground’s facility! Congratulations!” His booming voice carried over to her. “I can’t wait to see what monsters working with humans will give way to!”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“I’ve told you, you needn’t be so formal. We’ve known each other for so long, Rolia.” The pot was brought out, two cups held in the other hand. “I just wanted to speak with you after seeing this human. Well, I wanted to meet her but I suppose I scared her off.”

“She is…. Touchy on being comfortable. The littlest things frighten her. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s human or monster.” She did her best to explain. “Whatever happened to her before we found her wasn’t good.”

“Oh, the poor dear…” He sat down, grunting slightly to get comfortable in the almost too small chair. “Was it a monster?”

“Among humans. Honestly I’m surprised she trusts anyone right now…”

“Do we know how old she is?”

“Late teens, early twenties. We won’t know until we can either get her to remember or else get the proper information.”

Rolia took a sip, pleased at the floral scent that washed over her. The king’s tea was almost always perfectly pleasant no matter when she was served it. It filled her with a familiar, calming warmth. “She has recovered well recently. Eating and bathing well, and only had one injury she’d woken up on.”

“What sort of injury.”

“A stab wound to the neck.”

The silence that followed was only answered with a long sip. Rolia carefully blew steam from her own cup. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, King Asgore?”

“I…”

And she didn’t interrupt his silence that followed. It was hard, Rolia knew, for him. Putting himself in such a position that no one else wanted, doing things he didn’t want to do. All for the potential of bettering life for his people. To free them from their prison. Perhaps in another life he didn’t have to.

“Sam... right? Short for Samantha?” He asked after a moment.

“Yes, sir.”

“She was so kind. So small. So full of… wonder--as cliche as childlike wonder is.” A small chuckle. “She liked raspberry tea the best and the color blue. We spent several hours talking about the stars and the constellations they made up, finding plenty in the ceiling rocks. She was a pleasant child.”

“She is. This morning she was reading about the heavens.” The scientist smiled a little. “She ‘snuck’ downstairs to get the books.”

“All she wants to do is learn and love. I swear she read all the books in the Librabry.”

To be fair there probably weren’t too many there. Not if this was more than 10 years ago. The library had grown since then, with all the fallen material and the books put together by herself and Alphys. 

“I… made the mistake of befriending her. To get to know her. I had already made my decision on what to do with fallen humans and I-”

She was quick to speak. “You still could have decided otherwise.” 

“I-” And he paused completely, eyes falling to gaze at  _ anything _ else. “I am not proud of my actions.”

Not many people would be. Attacking innocent and helpless children did not a hero make. Not that he seemed to even consider himself that anymore.

“She didn’t want to fight. I’m sure she didn’t even know how.” Rolia noted the subtle shake his hands went through, even though it was quickly stilled to prevent spills. “She didn’t even realize I was trying to attack her.”

Even experiencing the trials and tribulations that war was, Rolia couldn’t understand. Fighting was never something to be proud of. To want to go back to. It was defense. It was the means to survive until another day. Until a better time happened. And all it got them was a prison… “At least tell me you tried to make it quick.”

“That was the intent, yes. I did not want her to suffer for a problem that wasn’t even hers.”

Had Sam not been found perhaps she would have bit her tongue, instead she gingerly set the sup down, reaching to pour herself some more. “Your Majesty, with all due respect: you tried to kill her. This became her problem if you want it or not.”

As much as he didn’t like it, he had very little choice at this point. The moment his magic flared in an attack it didn’t matter. No matter his regrets, no matter who or what he told, it was the past. The past was set in stone.

“ _ But _ , we can move on, make things right.” She continued, vaguely aware of her continuous preaching as of late. Perhaps that was from staying in the lab for far too long with nothing more than letters on a screen to talk to. 

“How do you suggest I do that?”

“An apology is always a good start, once she’s able to be around you for longer than a few seconds.” 

That honestly might be easier said than done. As it seemed, they barely understood the human. It would take a bit before they could even remotely figure out the best method to reintroduce them. That was even if Sam  _ wanted _ to meet with Asgore again. But this would have to wait; they had more pressing matters like medical status and the Human Embassy’s reaction to Sam being found in the Underground’s Facility. It already felt like it was going to be a royal nightmare that was on skis while on fire.

Rolia moved to pull the thinnest report from the heavy stack. She passed it to Asgore. “This is her report so far. We still have a handful of tests to do before she’s officially safe to be around other humans, but she’s doing well at the moment.”

“I am glad to hear that.” Although his eyes slid to the large pile of papers. “Are any of those urgent?”

“No, Your Majesty. Get to them when you can. Most of them are only status reports that you asked for.”

“Any, uhm,  _ stories _ ?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Oh, good. I’ve read enough fiction of myself for a few centuries.”

“Completely understandable.”

Rolia debated getting another cup’s worth, but thought against it with a glance to the paperwork piled up high on the table. Was that really the amount that they were trying to have the young ambassador do? What strange creatures that humans were. They always had so much paperwork. Every and anything was documented, even down to the sneezes it seemed. To think she’d chewed him out for past mistakes on top of all of this…

So she stood, nodding to him before bowing. It would be best to leave as soon as possible. “If you need anything else do not hesitate to call.”

“Thank you, Doctor Rolia,” The pages were put down on the stack once more. “And if there is anything I can do for Sam,  _ please _ let me know immediately.”

“I will, thank you, sir.”

The past would always be the past. It was useless to dwell on it. It was time to go forward.

“Goodbye.”

* * *

Laboratories were easy.

Just go to work, gear up appropriately, then get to work. Testing materials or testing unending hypotheses was just as fun as taking part of the endless puzzles that filled the Underground. The tests themselves were in their own rights, puzzles.

Puzzles were fun.

Well.

Puzzles with answers were fun.

“YOU LOOK ADORABLE, HUMAN SAM!”

The color of a summer sky with it’s wispy clouds flared out with a quick and giggle inducing spin. The simple summer dress was only paired with a minimum of six hair bows. Frisk gave two big thumbs up, quite pleased with the hair accessory situation. No one would blame the small human, the arrangement of clips and bows pinned Sam’s hair out of the way.

“Adorable,” was the only word that Rolia had for the look, quickly agreeing with Papyrus. She gently felt the closest bows, mildly enjoying the silky texture. “How are you feeling now, Sam?”

Just a shrug before she turned to Frisk again, smiling away at their new supplies. Well, they were new to Sam, as every crayon or marker was heavily inspected. Rolia watched for a moment before turning to head to the kitchen. The oldest of the household were waiting on her to entire, as both were casually sitting at the dining table, splitting one of the ever present slices of pie. The former queen nodded to her, making her nearly drop her bag in a manic attempt to bow to her. Thankfully the strap was securely on her shoulder, merely letting the bag slip down to tangle around her neck.

Smooth.

“Welcome dear- oh, my! You don’t have to bow all the time!”

“NO NEED TO HURT YOURSELF IN FRONT OF LADY ASG--”

Toriel cleared her throat.

“--LADY TORIEL! SHE  _ IS _ AMAZING BUT I ASSURE YOU THAT I AM EVEN MORE SO AND YOU ARE NOT ALWAYS BOWING TO ME!” Papyrus moved to right the bag and helped Rolia and her bruised pride to settle back. “HOW DID YOUR MEETING WITH THE KING GO?”

“Well, I learned a lot, to say the least.” Honestly Rolia wasn’t even sure if she could say it around Papyrus. Sans already didn’t like that the younger skeleton’s knowledge included less than pure things.

“Do you wish to discuss it now?” Toriel offered, glancing to the two who had quickly devolved into scribbling into sketchbooks.

No, as a member of the monster counsel who spoke with the humans, Papyrus needed to know. Whenever it would eventually come down to it, as much information as possible the better. Especially if the two little ones were distracted for the moment.

“We can.” She spoke carefully, “so long as Sam and Frisk do not hear.” It wasn’t a secret, really, just that she didn’t want to cause unwanted panic.

There was a nod from the two of them. Papyrus plopped back down in his chair, grabbing a femur shaped pen and a pad of paper. Rolia stole one last glance out to the humans, good to see the three of them happily playing with the colorful materials.

How were you supposed to finish a puzzle when you didn’t know how many pieces there were, or even how many pieces were missing? It didn’t even seem like they knew where the corner pieces were to start, or even what the picture was supposed to make.

But that was what made puzzles fun.

Wait.

Three?


	10. Chapter 10

Darker… darker….

She just felt… cold.

Hands played with markers, others perfectly poised over a playful pair. The two humans in the living room didn’t seem to even notice that they had an unwanted guest.

“Rolia? Is everything alright, dear?”

She hesitated to turn back to the adults, slowly doing so. “Do you two see anyone else out there?” Rolia purposefully kept her voice down. 

“Did Sans come home perhaps?” Toriel shifted to gaze past the scientist, frowning. “No, dear, it’s just those two.”

She wheeled around on her heels to point at the thing that was there. “There was jus-” 

Nothing.

No extra in the room.

No looming creature standing over the humans.

Just nothing out of the ordinary.

Heavens did she need a nap then.

“DO YOU NEED SOME SLEEP, DR. ROLIA?” Of course, Papyrus, shout it out to the high heavens about this. Even if it was true.

When  _ was _ the last time she’d slept?

Regardless, she shook her head. “No, I just thought I saw someone.” Oh, well. “I still need to tell you what Asgore said.”

“I doubt the information will change, dear. Why don’t you go sit and rest?”

“But-”

“Go sit on the couch.”

“I am fine-”

“Now, dear.” Toriel smiled, but her voice was definitely firmly planted in the ‘now or else’ stage. A stage Rolia absolutely hated.

“So she nodded, “Yes, my Lady.”

“I'LL GO GET YOU YOUR FAVORITE BLANKET FROM THE CLOSET!”

“That is-”

But the skeleton had already started off. Toriel smiled to her. “Best to just let us care for you too.”

Right, she was just supposed to accept that. Others cared even when she didn’t do anything worth being cared for. As much as she found that hard for her, she just took it in stride. Rolia nodded to the former Queen as she took to the living room. The figure was gone, but it’s presence still remained. Even now, as she settled down into the mess of pillows did she feel it. Still standing there, watching.

Rolia flicked her eyes up to scan Sam over, humming to herself. Just in case, she told herself, checking the human was simply to figure out if her health had stabilized yet. There was a huge potential that it hadn’t with suddenly being pulled away from whatever fluid was keeping her alive without other care for so long.

> **_HP: 688 | DEF: ERROR| EXP: 55258 | LV: 66_ **
> 
> **_*YOU FEEL THE_ _VOID_ _STARING BACK._ **

She really did feel cold.

Fluffy edges were wrapped around her, bony hands securing the blanket in place. The suddenness made her jump but seeing the bones had her relaxing rather quickly. It was just Papyrus. No one else. Nothing to worry about.

Damn, she really must have been tired.

Seeing things, jumping at others.

A nap and a few drinks later.

Figure it’s time to sleep for a few minutes, get them off her back for not sleeping… She let her eyes close, vaguely aware of the eyes watching her.

Sam noted when the bat monster dozed off, as her tail ended up curling up into a small ball. Rolia was just so silly in her opinion. She worked so much and almost never sat down to relax. How was she not tired? Did she only have to sleep a little? It was so cool! Just like  _ he _ was!

Not as cool as Papyrus, but still.

She watched the skeleton gently shift the scientist around until Rolia was appropriately laying down on the couch, a pillow up under her head and another to support her somewhat dangling limbs.

“Sam, dear, you shouldn’t put markers in your mouth like that.” Gentle hands to match a gentle voice carefully pulled the uncapped marker from her mouth. She hadn’t even put the smelly end in her mouth this time! The plastic barrel simply felt nice to chew on. 

‘Why?’ She asked after a second one was taken away.

“Because the ink could get in your mouth and marker ink doesn’t taste good.”

A small plate of… something was placed on the coffee table between the two humans. Frisk quickly reached out for them, popping a slice into their mouth before slowly motioning to Sam to do the same, spelling out the item. 

A ‘fruit’ huh?

Well, ‘apples’ tasted decent, she decided. Not her favorite, but not hated. Sam grabbed another slice with a smile, munching it mostly away before turning back to her doodles. Frisk had said something about making some pictures for ‘school’ but to be honest, Sam was too busy investigating the pens that the other had brought. They were so much fun to play with compared to just books!

She plucked up the darkest color she could find, unhappily reminding herself not to chew on the back half of it. The dark purple would work to color him in. Even he thought it looked good.

“We’ll need to have her take some tests to figure out where she is on an academic scale.”

The mention of tests made her perk up further. The two oldest had stowed themselves in the kitchen again. Were they trying to be quiet? Was she supposed to be listening? They were talking loud enough to be heard from the room over. Did they think she was not listening? A frown grew on her face, making her look away and to her doodle again. She didn’t want to get in trouble again.

“SANS SAID THAT HE HAD LOTS OF QUESTIONS HE WANTED TO ASK HER TOO!” Papyrus announced, completely unaware of just how loud he seemed to be. But Sam didn’t really mind, it was easy to understand him. “HE ALSO SAID WE SHOULDN’T TELL THE OTHER HUMANS JUST YET.”

“He’s correct, we should wait.”

“BUT WHY?”

“In case something is… not right with them. Sam has a part of a monster’s SOUL. That’s not at all normal. Dr. Rolia and Dr. Alphys are going to figure out as much as we possibly can before we tell them about her.”

“IS… ARE WE GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE FOR DOING THAT?”

There was definitely a hesitation in Toriel’s voice. The momentary silence made the human suck in a breath and carefully set her marker down. “I…. do not think that we will if we let them know as soon as we are sure she is ‘safe’.”

“SAFE?”

“Not a threat to other humans or monsters.”

“HUMAN SAM IS NO MORE A THREAT THAN HUMAN FRISK IS!”

“I know, dear.” There was a smile in Toriel’s voice, a memory clearly passing in her almost glossy eyes. “But humans are easily afraid of that which they do not understand.”

It took a moment before he slowly nodded. “SO IT WOULD BE… SAFER TO FINISH OUR INVESTIGATION?”

“Exactly!”

“THAT MAKES SENSE.” He grinned widely, turning to peek at what the little ones were up to. Sam couldn’t help a small giggle when the much larger skeleton jumped up, letting out the smallest of squeaks. “H-HUMAN SAM! I WAS NOT STARTLED! I WAS JUST STANDING UP TO LET YOU SIT IF YOU NEEDED TO!”

‘Are you going to get in trouble because of me?’ Her hands were slow before she ended up looking to the ground. The back of her throat was burning again, making her take a deep gulp. ‘I don’t want to get you in trouble.’

The former Queen paused before setting down the floral cup. “My child…”

Still she didn’t let her eyes up from the floor, even when they started filling with stinging tears. Don’t look an adult in the eyes. It was rude! They would get upset and make her wait outside until they needed her back inside again-

“You needn’t worry about this. It is not your problem nor your fault.”

Sam let out a small, broken noise when she was pulled into a tight hug. The shoulder she had been nestled into was shaking oh-so-slightly. The human let another noise, somewhere along the lines of fright and comfort mixed together. They weren’t mad? Sam carefully raised her hands to return the hug, quickly clinging to the soft coat that covered white fur.

“Never  _ ever _ think that it is.”

And no one blamed her when she started to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your continued support! Have a wonderful time period!


	11. Chapter 11

_ “If anything happens to me, promise me that you two will watch over them?” _

_ The words, ever soft, flowed brokenly past the rushing waters. Three bodies sat poised on the bank, two pairs of boots next to them. The third unsurprisingly refused to steam up the area. _

_“_ ██████?” _She asked, bringing her voice down softer than the waves. “What’s wrong?”_

_ “I just….” Their voice failed them. Hands were far too shaky to attempt to sign. _

_ A fiery hand rose, offering a reassuring back rub. “We promise,  _ ██████.”

_ The dread that was slowly filling the deepening pit in her stomach only got worse. A thin, still staking hand grabbed hers, holding it close. They took a deep rattling breath before bullets were summoned before the three.  _ ██████ _ took a deep but shaky breath. _

_ ‘There’s something i need to tell you two…’ _

* * *

“Sam you can’t just lick the stirring spoon and just put it back in the batter.”

The laugh that came with the mild scolding sounded like a choir calling from the kitchen. Rolia shifted and found the couch was much more comfortable than the lumpy green, sock surrounded love seat that she’d been forced into a nap on. The lack of pain in her back from the likely awkward angle only told her that she’d been home longer than just a few minutes. 

“Why? Because it’s not nice to others.”

She slowly moved to sit up, grimacing at aching limbs chorus of cracks and pops. The chill that worked down her back reminded her of…

Of what?

It was…

“Because not everyone likes spit in their food--well I don’t!” Mild crackling on each word sent a wave of relaxation through her body. It was just Grillby. The elemental must have brought the two of them home. She gave a smile, rubbing the dull ache in her chest away. 

Her fingers brushed cobwebs from the ceiling in a large stretch. A moment was taken to carefully remove the blanket from her shoulders and fold it up; she’d need to return the thing after a wash. It was only respectable to do so after she’d been allowed to wear it home. Rolia did her best to make a mental note to do so as she crossed the living room to the kitchen.

And she had to smile, tail flicking behind her as she settled into leaning up against the door frame. The two inside more or less just ignored--or rather didn’t notice her--as they slowly poured the batter into a messily prepared dish. The elemental was aptly covered in flour, not that the human was any better, however it looked hilarious that the usually too stoic for words monster had relaxed enough to let plenty of the ingredients fly everywhere. He was not even the only victim, as the walls, floor, and sink had also been assaulted by curious hands pressing on everything.

“You are welcome to join, Rolia.” Grillby’s voice was smooth like whiskey. “You needn’t be a stranger in your own house.”

“But it’s nice to just watch. You’re just so in your-”

“Don’t _. _ ”

“- _Element_ ~”

There’s only a sigh.

“Come on, that was a good one.” She was thankful that at least Sam was giggling a little. “See, even Sam thinks so.”

“Next time I’m leaving you on that lumpy couch.” He turned back to the dish, showing Sam how to unwrap one of the very many caramels.

The human had been dressed up in the only apron to be found in the mess of a kitchen. Well, after the bartender was there, it was already looking cleaner. Sam was smiling away, carefully following the directions to make the ever popular caramel drop cake that Grillby had started selling once they’d reached the surface. She looked quite pleased that she was doing well--at least in Grillby’s eyes, wherever they were.

“Thank you for watching her.” Rolia offered, bumping him out of the way of the sink. The last thing she wanted for him to do was work after getting off work. That was just as bad as him complaining about her homework.

“It’s no big deal. She is very willing to learn.” He slid the dish into the oven. Rolia tried to hide the surprise that she had towards the fact that the oven even turned on. She was pretty sure it didn’t even get hot anymore. “And she makes a wonderful sous chef.” 

“She also seems to be a good tornado, too.”

“Nothing wrong with being curious.” 

Rolia ran a finger along the wall, in front of her not at all surprised with the dust and flour caked finger tip that came back to her. It was still probably clear than it had been for a while. She gave a mild shrug and dunked her hands into the steaming sinkful to get started.

“Lady Toriel told me she’d stop by with some  _ actual _ homework for Sam to try.” Grillby carefully started cleaning Sam up, or at the very least was doing his best to show the human how to get the flour off to the best of her own ability. He couldn’t help the smile that happened when Sam quickly caught on and started to pat the flour off. “Papyrus believes she’s suffering from a short term amnesia.”

“How come short term?” Not that she didn’t trust the skeleton’s judgement. He was more than intelligent enough to figure something like that out. No, she was more curious of how he came to that conclusion.

“She’s remembering things at an incredible rate. It won’t be long before we can get a whole story from her.” 

At the very least, as much as she was willing to tell them. There were most definitely things she won’t want to remember--Asgore being one of them. And it wouldn’t be surprising whatsoever if Sam had more memories that were purposely locked away. Ones where only she held the key. Ones she would secret away for years to come.

“But she still feels the need to stick everything in her mouth.”

If that was the only gripe, then they were at least still making progress. Considering she’d come there not even knowing how to bathe herself. Things would come with time, that’s all they could ask for. Letting Sam get there on her own time.

“How about you get ready for bed?” Grillby asked the human. “Then you can have a slice of cake before bed.”

Rolia listened to excited feet skittering up the stairs before the door shut quickly behind them. She chuckled a little and grabbed a very messy bowl. “How are you so good with kids? Have a secret one that you wanna tell me about?”

“I have cousins.”

``How old are they now?” 

“About 35, now.’’ He started gathering the stray dishes that littered the kitchen.

“Oh, so they’re really young still. Are they still in school?”

“Well, they’ll be back after summer. Currently they’re being utterly obnoxious at the restaurant.” 

“Hey, they know Uncle Grillbz is just awesome to hang around.” She grinned and kept washing, completely intent on managing to do a chore. While her entire house could use a bucketful of elbow grease, one chore at a time. 

The element let out a scoff. “Human children are no different.”

“Then maybe you should stick around and help me with Sam.”

“I’ll have to or the both of you are gonna forget to even eat.”

“Hey! I remembered to feed her!” She pointedly told him.

“By texting me to bring food.”

“I haven’t exactly gone grocery shopping…”

“And why is that, again?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I was at the lab.”

“Honestly I’m surprised you ever even left it. Mysterious tub human or not.”

Wow. Rude. She started rinsing through the clean-but-not-rinsed pile. “Well, I needed to see my favorite fire monster.”

Feet bounded down the stairs before he could retort, making him smirk back at her. Sam was  _ very _ incorrectly wearing an over sized T-Shirt and a pair of what seemed to be ill-fitting shorts. Neither seemed to be hers, but the hand written ‘Cool Bones’ across the front of the shirt immediately showed who was originally the owner of the clothes. Although, she supposed, that was the back, wasn’t it?

“I’m proud of you, Sam! You even managed to get socks on!” Grillby told her. “Good job!”

She had to remind herself that even though she looked older, Sam was definitely still young inside. It was like that one video game that had made it into the Underground all those years ago. Rolia had had to retrofit three different computers to get it to work. They would need to try and work the small human slowly into the mental capacity that she should be. Thankfully she seemed more than willing to learn. Almost like she was mentally starved for the information lost to several years of complete isolation.

Sam plopped down on the floor once again, enjoying the slice of pie that had been given to her. Considering that she didn’t notice that it wasn’t even a cake--much less the one she made--all seemed to be all. Grillby was putting the Queen’s pie to other use than to be consumed in one sitting on one single lonely night.

Once again the fork was abandoned, not even given a second thought on it. She’d just scooped up the pie slice in her hand to eat far too much in a single bite.

“You can’t tak-”

The bite was promptly returned to her plate before Rolia could finish, spit and half chewed food covering the fork.

“Just… take smaller bites next time…”

Grillby couldn’t help but chuckle at the two. Ah, human children were just as gross as monster children could be. As unfortunate as it was, it was almost… no, no it was just gross. Plain ol’ gross. Just like every creature, monster or human, in existence. Sam slowly picked through the food, seeking out the whipped cream topping and the crunchy crust.

Rolia turned back to the dishes, glad and annoyed to see that Grillby had started to dry them, ambient heat wicking any stray droplets away. But she held her tongue on the matter; she worked in her off time all the time, chores weren’t really working--although he wasn’t even at his own home at the moment. So technically it was more work.

Grillby made a small yelp with her tail smacking him in the rear. She kept on working through the half dirty look that he shot her, eventually draining the sink. Sam tilted her head at the display before holding up the plate to them. The fire monster took it before rinsing it.

“Alright, bed time, little one.”

Rolia had to hold back a laugh with the following annoyed whine.

* * *

It unnerved him.

Shattered shards of long lost driftwood lay scattered upon the floor. He danced through them, long forgotten papers plucked up before being stowed away in a surprisingly full inventory. Monitors long fuzzed over, keyboards unresponsive, lights blinking to a long lost melody.

He ran his hands along the front of the glass tube, shaking off the lingering feeling that eyes were watching his every movement. This was it. This was the place that Sam waited for someone. Waited for help, waited to see the light of day again.

Waited for him to come back. 

He swallowed with a non-existent throat before physically shaking his head, pushing those thoughts to the back of his skull. He didn’t need to worry about the past. It was clear Sam didn’t even remember ever seeing him. She didn’t know that he’d straight up abandoned her when she’d woken up.

No.

_ Here for the code _ , he told himself.  _ Focus on finding all the documents _ . 

Every crook, cranny, edge, filing cabinet, anything and everything including a few walls and floor panels had been looked through and documents snatched up. With all the evidence, he knew that Sam held some sort of key to this. Whether it was some sort of physical key, metaphorical key, or the key to the code that was scattered throughout the Underground. It was nothing more than a gut feeling, one that wormed it’s way past a simple ‘likely answer’ to an ‘unfortunate fact’. 

The skeleton rooted through the last drawer in the messily organized filing cabinet. It barely fazed him to sift through 3 dozen varying instant noodle packages. Everyone had a different hobby. This mysterious scientist, for example, collected dying children and ramen types. Sans scooped out a single folder at the bottom of the drawer. Thumbing through it, he came to a stop.

On a very worn, barely held together page rested a child’s drawing. Four figures all posed together: one large scribble colored in black, two smaller figures, one in blue and one in orange. The last figure was much smaller than the others, and had a huge smile on their face. It was a similar photo to the one that was in his own cabinet at home. But one thing caught his attention: the neatly written lines of text at the bottom. One was a small handful of the same code… but the other…

> **_SAVE HER_ **

It unnerved him.


	12. Chapter 12

The sun peeked over the earth, kissing the land with a colorful dawn, invading sleepy eyes with a known and welcome smile. Night and dawn danced a millennia old song, one that aptly drew her out of her half daze.

Of all the things from the surface, the sunrises would always be her favorite. Sunsets came in a close third. Rolia drummed her fingers on the cool mug before willing herself to stand from the kitchen table. The stale tea was taken to the sink, a frown on her face. What expensive tea to be wasting for being utterly lost in through for far too long. IT was not the first time and surely wouldn’t be the last. She just hoped that next time she wouldn’t ruin the expensive tea. Getting more of the stuff was hard anyways, as she really hated going to the store. Too many people, too many noises, having to get stared at, having to be kind to everyone and get things off the top shelves for them…

Rolia picked up her phone to check it, completely unsurprised with the amount of messages it presented her with. Some from Asgore to say grants were approved, two from Toriel to ask how Sam was doing after yesterday and to tell her that she’d have homework prepared for later that day. The remaining 27 messages were from Alphys writing half a book. With topics so sporadic the elder scientist wondered if the younger one was getting enough sleep or just unceremoniously dumping caffeinated products into her system.

Look at the pot calling the kettle black.

**> >ALPHYS UwU : We need to test her magic output. Can you bring her to the new lab ASAAvailable? No appt needed.**

She raised an eyebrow at the sudden tone change. It must be serious if they were asking so formally. Humans didn’t have magic anymore, at least not normally. Those who did were often hailed as miracle workers. Sam hadn’t shown any signs of knowing what magic was, let alone knowing how to use it. Yet it would eventually be required by the Human Embassy once she was brought to them.

**< <Bat Momma: Sure. Will try and bring her today. **

Maybe by then they can manage to corral the human into properly wearing clothes again. Well, she should rephrase that: help the human learn how to put on clothes properly. Sam thankfully at least had the basics down. Socks and underwear were never fun to teach.

She padded into the living room, careful to leave the thick silence intact. The lack of electrical lights let the way for a soft glow from the two beings snuggled up on the couch. Bad dreams and panic had pulled Sam from her room. No amount of verbal reassurance would work from her, only pre-warmed hugs did, ending in Grillby and Sam falling asleep on the couch together, and Rolia taking advantage of the situation to work on paperwork without being berated for it. They needed sleep after their respective busy days, to rest and recuperate.

Honestly, Rolia should have expected Sam to get a shock or panic from seeing Asgore again, especially after getting the full story from the King. That would have been terrifying for anyone, especially a young child. She bit her lip a moment, she was going to need to apologize to her later.

While she wanted to be upset with Asgore, Rolia knew that she really couldn’t be completely. He was only trying to do what was best. What he thought was best. Even if that ‘best’ really only caused more harm than good.

The two were sleeping so peacefully that she really didn’t want to wake them up. But even so, rolia knew that Grillby would absolutely not like having been allowed to sleep in past his prep time for the lunch rush. So she gently shook his shoulder, chuckling when sleepy flames flew out from his loosened collar to lick her hand.

“Time to wake up.” The bat monster spoke quietly. “Things to do, people to serve, heads to turn….”

The fire monster only hummed. “I’m trapped. Go on without me.”

“You are only trapped under a single pillow.” Rolia pointed out. “Move another pillow to where you’re sitting.”

“She’ll wake up.”

“Sam has things to do too.”

“But she just got to sleep.”

“It’s 9 AM, Grillbz.”

Grillby only blinked.

“You’ve been asleep for 8 hours.”

“... I have?” He looked a bit surprised, wheeling his head around to find the nearest working clock, eventually ending up with wide eyes at his phone. “How could you let me sleep in this much?!”

She couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his frantic but careful shuffling to get up and cleaned up for work. Sam was barely jostled during the delicate orchestra, but woke up regardless, yawning a very soft and short yawn. He was tightening his tie up when he noted the little one’s signing.

“I have to go to work, Sam.”

Sam looked to Rolia for an answer as well. The bat monster nearly felt offended that she didn’t try to sign,but realized the human was smart enough to know that she didn’t even understand Sam enough to hold a conversation.

“We’re going to visit Dr. Alphys today.” She tried, “So you need to get dressed to go.”

The human nodded and scooted off the couch and took off to her room. Grillby waited until after Sam was gone before speaking again, hands completely busy with slipping into his vest.

“Should I ask?”

“Magic testing.”

“She’s human?”

“With part of a monster’s SOUL.” She shifted to him, carefully reaching out to straighten his tilted tie. “It’s just to be safe.”

“Come by the bar later.”

“I’ll try.” She smoothed out his vest. “Now go turn some heads.”

“As always.”

She waved him off, shooing him out the door. He was gone before Sam scampered down the stairs again. The human was dressed in the same summer dress as the day before, managing well to have gotten it on. Probably because Papyrus had helped her yesterday with the clothes. She’d even managed to get her bone sandals on. It completely amused her that Papyrus had picked out the one pair of shoes that had bones on it. To be fair, they were absolutely adorable.

“Ready to go?”

Sam nodded, heading to the door to wait for her. Rolia joined her, bracing for the brute brightness of the morning sun. one of these days she would find her missing 8 pairs of sunglasses. But until then she raised one of her wings, stretching it out above them. BAM! Impromptu umbrella. She locked the door (for the first time since they’d moved to the surface) stowing the key away quickly. 

“It’s not a long walk but I can carry you if you get tired.” Rolia explained before walking in the correct direction..

Sam followed, eyes roaming the horizon, taking in all the sights. From the sun kissed treetops to the freshly mowed grass that filled the air with a bright scent. The human reached out to touch the passing brushes by the sidewalk, only yanking back her hand when one turned out to be a thorn bush. For that she made quite the face towards the bush, as if the bush had purposely reached out and attacked her, regardless that she was the one who touched it first.

Rolia did her best to note as many things as she possibly could. The way Sam walked, where she held her arms, how often she sprinted to catch back up with the scientist after falling behind to look at the stray leaf or shining rock. She was an amusing one at least. The information was quickly filed away to document properly later. Sam’s file seemed to be ever growing. She supposed that came with being so interesting and confusing. An extraordinary puzzle. 

Rows of gardenias filled the long walk way up to the entrance to the New Lab. Apparently a human architect had this place built for them after hearing about the long trip they had to take to make it to the Underground to do work. For some reason, the Embassy saw that as a wonderful gift to have, even when they had to spend a lot of man hours moving the more important stuff and even longer to get all of the new, and old, monster scientists ID cards that could securely access the building. 

Colorful petals quickly had Sam’s attention more or less keeping her occupied until Rolia finally retrieved the ID card from the bottom abyss of her bag. Whatever reports that still remained inside had completely swallowed up every other item down to the small thing of chapstick she was surprised she hadn’t lost yet. Honestly she should keep that ID card in her inventory and not her bag, but let’s be real, she knew she’d forget to do that instantly after using the ID. With a little jingle, the door unlocked. Well this was already working better than what the lab in Hotland had.

Once the door was opened, Sam turned from the flowers to the bat monster, nodding and heading inside. She wasn’t even surprised at the fact that she was quickly but gently led by her shoulders. This was understandably not the first time in a laboratory. 

“Look what the  _ bat _ dragged in.”

_ Oh. _

“Find a new test subject?”

“Yes, since your sense of humor was used up decades ago.” She gently pulled Sam a bit closer, away from the stranger. “Sam, this is Kerry. Kerry, this is Sam.”

Kerry Hazel, an assistant who started working under one of the other human scientists (who’s name she could never remember). They often were found in Alphys’s record room looking through reports and the many, many guides on magic and the Underground. Unfortunately they got along a little too well with Sans’ many pranks.

“Well, hi, Sam. You can call me  _ Dr.  _ Kerry.” They yelped when Rolia smacked his outstretched hand. “Okay, okay! Not a doctor  _ yet. _ ”

Sam had squeaked behind Rolia’s protective stance when they made such a sudden loud noise. But she couldn’t help a small giggle when it did come out to be teasing. 

“No, but Dr. Alphys said I should get a visitor pass ready.” They dug into their pocket, pulling out the flimsy pass. They carefully pinned it to Sam’s sleeve. “And to escort you and your guest to the correct room.”

“I’m sure I know how to get to her office, thank you.”

“Nice, try, but it’s not in her office, it’s upstairs on the 3rd floor.”

“A different room?”

“Yep. They finished the upper floors finally.” They held out their hand to her. “It’s okay to take my hand if you’re scared.”

“How valiant.”

“It’s oka-” They stopped when Sam’s hand fell into theirs. “Oh, then, hello, buttercup.”

Rolia held back a snort. “Can we go now.”

“Of course, onward!”

Sam couldn’t help but giggle at the assistance’s comically large steps. Rolia merely held back a snort about just how silly they were acting now. They were quite the character after all. They were taken through the white halls. Geez, they couldn’t use a bit more decorations here. Maybe Frisk could sit down with Sam and make some.

“Alright, here we are!”

Rolia stole a glance at the room name. Ah, a magic proof room. That made plenty of sense. If something happened they would be able to contain the magic output. 

“And the doctor of the hour is gonna hafta open the door for us.” Kerry announced, a bit of a flourish in their arms.

Said scientist only rolled her eyes as she went to the entry pad. She ran her hand against the reader, put in a password, and smiled when the heavy door’s latch was let go. Rolia made a noise when the unfamiliar tug on the back of her lab coat happened. Sam looked up at her with confusion.

“Nothing to worry about, Sam. We’re just going to ask you some questions and stick some stickers on you, okay?”

If anything, Sam seemed to relax. She was glad that Sam trusted her, even just a little. It was enough that the human felt comfortable and safe around her.

So she led them into the room, a smile on her face. If anything, pretending not to be worried usually calmed others down, even if she was in no way comfortable. The younger scientist busily set up equipment, barely reacting to them being there. Wires were a royal mess.

“G-Good morning!” Alphys more or less jumped from her pile of papers. She wasn’t really sure why the yellow scientist was always so nervous around her. She was technically the boss, not Rolia. “H-How are you today? I didn-didn’t expect you to come s-so soon.”

“I am doing well, Dr. Alphys.” Rolia bowed a bit, humming a moment. “I brought her as soon as I could.”

“I-I-It was no rush!” The younger insisted. “I barely had time to get ready!”

“My apologies, Doctor.”

Kerry gave a soft chuckle as they lifted Sam carefully onto the awaiting hospital bed. They gave the smaller human a gentle smile, taking the sticky pads for the monitors and gently putting them in place. “Nothin’ to worry about little one. The Doc’s here are great and safe. This shouldn’t hurt and if it does let us know.”

Alphys hummed to herself, her heels clicking on the floor as she shuffled about the room getting everything back in order. It only took a moment or two before she nodded. “O-Okay,” There was a gulp before she got back to work. “I’m going to check you first. Y-You know what CHECK is?”

Sam nodded a little, moving so that Alphys had all of the room she might need. She was still curious about the noises that the machines made around her. She didn’t seem at all confused when the scientist held a hand out.

> _ HP: 688 | DEF: ERROR| EXP: 55258 | LV: 66 _
> 
> _ *SAM IS CURIOUS ABOUT KERRY’S PINK HAIR. _

Alphys snorted and went back to her notes, writing out exactly that. The other two professionals only raised an eyebrow to her.

“I-I’m going to ha-have you hold this paper.” Once it was dug out of the waxed bag, Alphys held it out to Sam. “I-It’s going to tell us what sort of m-magic you have.”

While the youngest didn’t understand, she still held out her hands for the thick paper. Rolia couldn't help but watch more closely, curiosity plastering to her face quickly. That paper reacted to a monster’s magic. It was used in monster schools and even by the Royal Guard to find out what sort of magic the testee was more inclined to do. No humans to date had ever gotten the test to do anything. The elder scientist caught the utter confusion on the human’s face. 

She scooped up another page. “Sam?”

The human peeked up at her.

“Don’t focus too hard. Just-” The paper between her fingers crinkled before folding itself into a small, blue bat. “Just close your eyes and imagine the first thing that the word ‘magic’ reminds you of.”

She felt cold.

She saw darkness.

And she checked.

> _ HP: 688 | DEF: ERROR| EXP: 55258 | LV: 66 _
> 
> _ *REMEMBER THE VOID _

Large drops of darkness welled up from beneath Sam’s fingertips. They engulfed the paper until it was nothing but a vacuum of light and sound. A void. Sam’s fingers trembled with each passing second, stopping only when the blobby paper glooped to the ground.

“I-I’ve never seen the paper do that.” Alphys muttered after the gloop flopped to the ground.

“It’s… probably just a reaction to Sam’s determination.” Considering the amalgamates, it at least was a plausible enough theory. Rolia bent down to take the paper, taking the slimy thing between her fingers.  _ Disgusting _ . “What’s her output measuring at?”

Sportatic typing came after. “She’s basically oozing magic energy. P-Probably because her body isn’t really made to-to hold magic.”

“Will that hurt her?” Kerry interjected. “And if it does, will it kill her?”

Tactful their name was not. Any good doctor knows that being blunt about bad news isn’t always the best policy. It took a many good years to learn such a skill. Sometimes the patient benefited from a gentle nudge to the truth.  _ This _ was definitely one of those times.

“K-K--”

“No, Kerry.” Rolia waved a hand in front of Alphys, stepping in front to avoid anything accidental from slipping from the Royal Scientist’s lips. “Humans can live without magic. Sam is human. Everything will be fine.”

Probably. Probably at least.

They would honestly just have to watch the human and make sure that the slowly dwindling magic supply her body held wasn’t causing any issues. It seemed at the moment that Sam felt no ill effects, if anything at all. No, the only issue that seemed to be was the mention of death to Sam.

Rolia righted her lab coat, fighting back giving into the odd shiver slipping down her spine. Kerry had taken to removing the sticky pads from Sam, Alphys busily typed away. There were no eyes on her yet she felt watched. The familiar feeling sent another chill down her spine.

She was cold.

██████ ?

...Who?

Someone but… no one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	13. Chapter 13

It was the smiles that always got her. 

The happiest of faces beamed back at any new guest, the air filled with palpable joy. Whether it was the good food of hard drinks, it was a joy to walk into.

Even now, with practically a month between visits, she was welcomed with open arms and lifted drinks. Gone but not forgotten. It made her feel welcomed. It made her feel home. As home as a bar full of monsters and humans could.

Rolia spotted her usual corner booth surprisingly open and motioned Sam to it. The human hurried to it, taking temporary refuge behind it. Within seconds of sitting down two plates and drinks were slid into the spaces before them. Grillby smiled at them before slipping away again to deal with more customers. The plates were simply filled with fries, a variety of condiments on Sam’s plate for her to try as well. The human at least recognized the fries, immediately grabbing some, followed by a moment of confusion as she looked for some sort of utensil.

“You don’t need a fork to eat fries. You can use your hands.” Rolia spoke carefully before demonstrating.

Sam nodded before slowly turning to the cut potatoes and popping one in her mouth. She absolutely melted right after. She was definitely a salty person. Rolia prided herself for only enjoying the sweetest fruits occasionally, but definitely would eat them all day long as long as funds allowed.

Well, time and funds.

Work was almost always more important than taking time to cook or even eat. Both of those were so boring-why would she ever want a break when she could just hyper focus on whatever for however long?

The bubbling lemon drink caught Sam’s attention rather quickly, making her turn to the glass and pull it closer. She brought her hands along the cool glass, surprised with every drip that fell with her fingers. The wonder that followed brought a smile to Rolia’s face.

“This is where Grillby works.” The scientist spoke softly, barely catching the sign that followed.

Every hand movement or noise that went long misunderstood settled deep in her gut. ‘Hands’ was a fairly unknown way of speaking in the Underground. Most of those who recently dwelled there were less than familiar with the silent art. Even less knew it existed save a few of the more silent monsters--or some who could only speak little common.

A very warm body slid into the booth next to her, ambient heat pushing away any and all cold from the area. A slowly defrosting drink was placed into her free hand. He slid a slice of cake over to the human, smiling a tad at the gasp that followed. The cake they'd made the night before still looked as pristine as ever. The mix of monster and human food always turned out in their favor: nourishing to humans, lasting like monster food. Sam took it almost immediately, poke it with her finger until she was passed the closest fork.

"How has your day been?"

Rolia had to hesitate, drink swirling in cool colors, finding the right words to possibly say. They were in public, humans all around, and it might not be completely fair to say what Sam had gone through. That she had some sort of magic.

So she-

"Oh? You got cool stickers from Kerry?" said Grillby, a light chuckle in his voice. 

Sam smiled widely and held out her arm where two star stickers were placed. They'd been put there by the human scientist in some sort of attempt to making Sam not so worried about the bizarre outcome to the test. While the test didn't go as planned it still wasn't a complete loss. The entirety of the results sitting with the odd magic they now had to figure out. It wasn't a base element like fire or water, nor was it 'character' based like skeletons wielding bones. 

Frankly speaking "blob" wasn't at all a type of attack or defense that had been documented before.

"Of course I'll come by after work. But you have to work on your homework first." 

The groan that followed was more than hilarious. Even with strange amnesia the human was well aware and hated homework. Was it just inbred into children now-a-days? Rolia watched as Sam dropped her fork in order to sign, even though her mouth was aptly filled with whipped cream at the moment. 

"Ah- what? A.... goop?" Even the bartender was a bit confused at that. "A 'goop man'?"

Sam nodded furiously, pointing to the seat beside her. There was a pause as the two monsters gazed and even toed the seat next to the human. Nothing. And Rolia thought she needed a nap right now. Apparently so did the human---Sam. 

With a slightly tilted head, Grillby continued, choosing his words rather carefully. "Is... he a bad man?" 

There was a quiet gasp when a chill rocketed down Rolia's back, dragging Grillby's attention quickly from the conversation. Cold. Cold and dark. Even the entirety of the elemental's warmth seeping into her shoulder wasn't dispelling the chill. 

Just... darkness.

It was several moments before she could speak again. "Sorry-Sorry...." 

"When was the last time that ate?" Grillby offered, still not moving from his spot. He blatantly ignored any beckoning from others that was happening beside them. "Are your sugars low? Magic low?" 

"No... I'm fine. Don't worry." Rolia frowned. "Just been getting hit with... Ideas for... Work?" 

Yep he didn't believe that. 

But he didn't press it, at least not with Sam right there. Said human was calmly attacking the remainder of fries on her plate, expertly dunking them into a haphazardly pile of ketchup. If she had heard any bit of the former conversation, Sam surely didn't show it. No, the only thing aside food that had her attention was the stocky skeleton that had just strolled in.

While the fact that Sans was back from the facility didn't surprise her, the fact that he didn't seem to have a single thing in tow did. Her furrowed brow did not go unnoticed.

"D'ya mind getting him some of his ketchup? I have it back behind the counter." The bartender offered. "I can stay here with Sam a bit longer."

"But your customers-"

"It's a lull. Now go."

So Rolia slid out of her seat and nodded. Right, take advantage of having someone else there and willing to look after the little one. She quickly made her way right over. Sans noticed her right away, not that she expected anything differently, but he simply slid into his seat and waited for someone to make their way behind the bar, slippered feet swinging back and forth against the bar stool.

Thankfully the trip didn't make long, her feet carrying her right over, slipping back behind the still shining bartop. With a practiced hand Rolia found the intended drink even before the skeleton spoke a single word to her. The bottle was plucked from the collection, top flipped off, and drink slid to Sans. 

"Allow me to guess: make sure this goes on your tab?" She offered with the best smile she could muster right now. 

"you know me so well, bat-mom. thanks." Long fingers wrapped around the bottle to keep it in place. "how'd the test go with al today?"

Rolia quirked an eyebrow at that. "And how exactly did you know about that?"

"you know i have my ways."

"Sans."

"you weren't home with the ki-- with sam. figured you'd be in the lab with her if you weren't at home, 'cuz where else would you be?"

Alright, he had her there.

"so?"

"It was fine, thank you. She has some... interesting magic." Yeah, interesting was one way to put it. Completely unheard of before would be more correct. "And how did your day go?"

He slowly took a sip, seemingly relishing the taste. "y'know, the facility isn't in the greatest of shapes anymore after the whole experiment thing that al did. you're lucky i managed to get out without leaving anything important behind."

"If it was that dangerous you shouldn't have gone!" She crossed her arms. "I didn't mean for you to go do something super dangerous."

"relax, mom, i got the stuff." As if to make a point, a hand disappeared into his coat before returning with a single,crisp manilla folder. "here you go."

The folder was held out over the bar in one hand, drink being sipped by the other. Rolia gave a nod and slowly uncrossed a hand to take it, jumping when he snatched it back. 

"50,000 g."

_What?_

She raised an eyebrow, hand simply being held out for the documents. 

"alright, alright." He drawled and returned the folder back to it's original position. "I'll wave that charge for you, bat-mom."

"How gracious of you." But her curiosity got the best of her rather quickly, taking to flipping through the documents. Pages and pages of the same sort of unbreakable code made of ridiculous symbols and in what seemed to be no sort of coherent pattern. It was only right to go along with the mysterious tube human. "Looks like I'll be making a fresh pot of coffee for tonight."

"hey make sure to eat something or however it is you subsist." The following eyebrow raise was met with a snort. "what? paps would hate it if his favorite mom got sick again from forgetting to take care of yourself."

The folder was stashed away into her inventory. It was better off somewhere only her magic could access rather than sitting out in the world where just anyone could get to it. "I'll try and keep that in mind then."

"you can get back to your _boyfriend_ now, i bet you're cold enough without him." 

"It's been like three minutes, Sans, I'm not col----" Her face utterly flushed with realization. Rolia turned on her heel, tail slipping up from behind the bar and reached over to the skeleton, bapping his skull gently. "Enjoy your ketchup." 

Just a grin came as a reply. "make sure to take some napkins, tube kid is a mess again."

She simply grabbed a handful and stalked back to the booth. Even if Sans had been teasing, did he really have to do it right now? At the bar? With Grillby less than twenty feet away? Rolia swore up and down that whenever that skeleton found someone who struck his fancy--if something ever did--she would tease his boney butt to Snowdin and back.

Rolia slid into the booth again with a huff, placing the napkins there. She hadn't even let go of the cloths before she froze.

Dark.

Darkness surrounded the other side of the booth, looming over Sam and spilling across the table between them. A soft grinning face peered up at her.

**What the hell?**


	14. Chapter 14

She's not lying.

She's not.

She saw that dark figure looming over the human. Rolia saw it look at her. She saw it react to her noticing it. It was there. It was real. It was...

Gone in the next instance.

So why was she forcefully being escorted home by the laziest skeleton on the entirety of the planet? What was he gonna do if she randomly passed out or ran for it? Shout at her? Sans couldn't even talk that loudly. 

Rolia sighed and ran the events of the day over again. She'd come to the conclusion that the goop man thing that was spotted at the restaurant was also likely the being she had sensed at Toriel's house. Rolia also had decided that the goop man was also just a little too similar to the magic that Sam had conjured during their test. But what really got her was the utter since of... Familiarity that it came with; As if she recognized this creature. While she was certain she hadn't seen it up until the human had come to stay with her, it was becoming a little too common, even if it really was only the second time seeing it.

"yeah but she's pretty cool too." She was barely paying attention to the small skeleton and the human's conversation, but something --probably the sudden volume change in Sans' voice--caught her attention. "an' you don't hafta worry too long. she's gonna learn how to understand you. then you can tell her about that monster too."

Monster? One from her past or one from now? Did she see a monster and just be curious? Well, those weren't likely answers to get any time soon.

"he's nice right?--- yeah i see." 

The Human hesitated to say much more, instead her curiosity moved to gently grabbing Sans' hand and investigating it. Each bone was looked over and traced between careful hands. 

"gotta hand it to you, kid, you know how to make a trip quick." Sans commented as they rounded the last corner to Rolia's quaint house. "maybe i'll bring you next time paps wants me to go back to the old house for somethin'."

"No you absolutely will not." She finally interjected on their conversation, earning a wide Cheshire cat grin. "She is not to leave my supervision."

"theeeeeeen, that just means you'll hafta take a break from working too much to come on a field trip--"

"We are not going back down the Underground until her condition is sta-"

"--plus kerry-berry wants me to take them down there to get samples of some rocks or somethin'."

"The answer is still no."

"wow, you're taking the role of 'bat-mom' too seriously."

"You're the one who calls me that, Sans."

"cuz you are."

"Alright, Sans." Rolia hummed as she moved to the door, hand digging through her bag for her key. She frowned, remembering why she didn't like locking the door. No humans or other monsters ever even tried getting in. It was the 'haunted' house down at the end of the road. Gangly trees hung low branches over the entire yard and calls of distant wildlife filled the air. It was no freshly trimmed lawn either, no. Rolia preferred the dark and shade loving plants. "Well, you've escorted me home, you can go now."

Sans only gave a wink back. "grillbz said that i gotta make sure you _stay down_."

Her hand froze at the lock, keys slipping from her otherwise death grip in an attempt to gain control. They clattered to the ground, making Sam immediately jump and somewhat hop behind the bat monster. The human peered around Rolia for a moment before picking up the keys and holding them out for her. 

As soon as the metal ring was in her hand, Rolia took a deep breath and did her darndest to pull herself out of the blue magic. She could feel every muscle tense as she tried to push forward. 

_PING_

Well, she wasn't expecting that to happen.

The constrained muscles twitched immediately until the momentum propelled her entire body forward and straight into the dark walnut door. Rolia tried to brace herself in the few seconds she had before her face smashed against the door, making a loud resounding _thud_.

Smooth.

The yelp from the human behind her made the utter annoyance in her SOUL faded quickly to concern. The stinging pain on her forehead was quickly forgotten in lue of turning around to look at Sam, who had slotted herself between Sans and the scientist. Before Rolia could say anything, the human unhappily turned to the skeleton. 

Whatever it was that Sam signed, Sans just hummed a bit. "was jus' following directions from grillby."

Rolia frowned a bit but didn't say a word to them. Not like she would understand the human after all. She just wanted him to not, perhaps, throw her into objects.

But she went inside without a word, hanging up the set of keys and heading right to the kitchen in hopes of finding a semi stocked medicine cabinet, frowning even deeper when she didn't. Curse her inability to remember to do anything more than her research. With a quiet grumble, the bag of stuff was laid on the table as she passed to go flop on the couch. Nothing research-y was going to get done any time soon at this rate, no, not with the growing headache.

The two younger ones finally walked in, Sam careful to make sure that the door was shut behind them. Her hands faltered on whether or not she should lock it after the display right there. Several seconds passed before she was able to decide that leaving it unlocked for the moment was alright.

A blistering cold object was pressed to the growing bruise on her forehead, and had she not seen the skeleton hand holding it, she would have probably jumped. "you should rest for now."

"I would, but someone has to ensure that you don't take down the whole town with your shenanigans." She shifted until she was the least amount of obtrusive as possible.

Sans only shot back a soft chuckle. Rolia would have been exasperated had this not been expected or his usual sly behavior. But, no, she knew that he wouldn't do anything more than he had to. And right now, all he _had_ to do was find a certain ever present condiment, if the noises of a pint sized skeleton rooting around in her surprisingly filled fridge was anything to go on.

"Bottom shelf, left side." She called out.

"thanks, ma." He returned.

Rolia peeked an eye out to catch the human curiously looking at the large arm chair in the room. While the scientist rarely used it, she also could never convince herself to rid of it. Not even the move to the surface had gotten her to do so. Sam carefully climbed into it, almost amused at how big it was for her size.

"by the way," Sans shuffled between them, juice boxes and cheese sticks in hand, "i really am sorry about the whole door thing."

"Just please don't do that again." She thanked him softly for the fruity boxed drink. "I don't like having to explain why I keep ending up with random bruises on my face after you show up."

"want me to call paps to heal it?"

"Oh no. Don't you dare. He's at work. I will be fine soon enough." Being a monster diplomat in training is far more important than a small purple mark on her forehead.

"want me to try?" Despite the offer he was already joining her on the couch, sinking into the far too squishy cushions.

"No, you'll just wear yourself out and pass out on the floor again."

"suit yourself."

Silence fell upon the room, save the quiet slurping of an empty juice box. Faint buzzing of the overhead lights rang in her ears. Rolia shifted the ice pack, gently prodding the tender area. Good. No marks visible, and thankfully no lower damage. Her wings twitched behind her until finding more comfortable positions to stretch out.

Sans was the first to break the silence, his voice barely breaking out of its usual muttering. "so i looked into that tube while i was there."

Rolia shot a glance up to the human, relief washing through her that Sam was far more interested in meticulously peeling strings of cheese off the stick than paying any attention to the conversation. "Oh?"

"mmhmm." Sans allowed himself to compress into a lazy ball. "that liquid wasn't just any kind of liquid."

"Some sort of healing solution?"

"its a magical compound developed when the king's human kid was sick. although they died before they could use it." He mimed holding a folder. Oh the one he gave her. "its mostly magic."

Well then. All of the information referring to the Royal human child was locked away after their death, so having something from those experiments was truly a surprise. Rolia popped the folder from her inventory and started flipping through it, looking for the documents on said liquid. And she almost wasn't surprised that almost everything tied to Sam was written in the same obscure code.

Almost.

"wake me up for breakfast, ma."

She couldn't help the soft chuckle. They both knew she'd be reading every scrap of information and typing away well into the morning. She stole a last glance to the human, finding it quite alright that the armchair had claimed its next sleeping victim.

Yet she still didn't like the way that Sam had scooted to one side, a dark weight pressed against her sleeping form.

And she felt cold.

Cold and... Lonely.

She just needed to figure out this human. Surely that was all she needed.

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for taking so long! A lot of stuff suddenly came up! Thank you for hanging in there and I hope you have a good day!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a decision made.

"Should I even bother asking what happened this time?"

If the words hadn't been the first thing to wake her up, the flickering heat in front of her would have been. 

Pain struck up her spine with each crack that followed with her sudden up-righting. Rolia gave a soft groan at it, brows furrowing up into a twisted bunch until any lingering pain had settled. She waited a moment more just in case. When nothing more came, pain or any other disturbance, she finally looked up to her newest guest. The darkness aside the elemental's glow told her that she'd managed to impromptu nap until dark, and if Grillby was there, then it was at least midnight.

Geez. Was she catching up on the last century of terrible sleep or something?

The nod from the bartender towards the kitchen and a hand held out to hold was all the further instruction that she needed to finally hoist herself up and start that way. Grillby lingered in the living room a moment longer to note the blanket on the human laying in that silly armchair that the scientist should have gotten rid of several centuries ago.

But... Even he couldn't find it in him to tell her so.

It felt so normal to him. To visit her and see that antique armchair next to the couch, the only lamp in the room atop a book covered side table.

He blinked.

And his heart ached.

"Do you want some tea?"

The words pulled him back, turned on his heel and headed to the kitchen, where two plates of food awaited them. Perfectly presented grilled cheese and roast beef with a side of tomato soup. He'd even remembered to grab several of the almost overripe oranges to bring home for Rolia. Seeing as she ate most of every single fruit she was brought, he had made the bright red mental note to take her any fruity thing he could get his hands on.

The bartender waited next to the chair Rolia's food sat in front off, not saying a word until he was sure the scientist was relatively comfortable.

"Care to explain?"

"The head?" She asked, oranges already in her hands. "Face planted the door."

"And how exactly did that come about?" Grillby carefully moved the straying strands from her forehead, gazing at the injury with an ever growing frown.

"Sans was feeling playful. I think he likes the new audience." Rolia popped a slice into her mouth. "It was my fault for fighting it. Blue means stop after all."

She couldn't help the mild rosiness that came to her cheeks when she noted the green tint forming where his mouth usually sat. She barely registered how to tell him thank you for the healing after he pressed a light kiss to her forehead. Any residual pain was whisked away the moment he pulled away.

It took a handful of seconds before she was able to even form a word, let alone several. "You didn't have to do that. It wasn't even that bad."

"I'm allowed to worry about you." Grillby lingered a moment longer before shifting to go back to his seat. "Eat up while it's warm."

She sat down obediently, chuckling a little, rubbing the back of her neck, “Any idea how long I’ve been asleep?”

"I got here an hour ago." He offered. "You were all sleeping well so I didn't wake you."

Grillby took a moment to pour a glass of whiskey for the both of them. Human alcohol was always a treat for the two of them, but ever since coming to the surface, Rolia couldn't help but always keep some in the house. He slid a glass over to her. "So, what's got you distracted now?"  
  
She took the glass, watching the ice clink against the side of it. "Who says's I'm distracted?"  
  
"While I don't particularly enjoy your puns, I do miss the smile that usually follows." He swirled his own drink. "So what's on your mind? Is it Sam?"  
  
Of course he'd notice something as simple as a lack of a smile. He got good at his job for reading people well. Rolia distracted herself with the grilled cheese before finally answering. "Well, yes and no."  
  
He only stared back at her, waiting for more. He didn't press, he didn't antagonize, simply waited. Such the patient SOUL he had.  
  
She took a few bites to procrastinate answering, honestly feeling a bit silly for part of her concern, but oh well. No point hiding it. Not with those burning eyes on her. "Well, it's kind of two different things. Part one has to do with Sam..." She admitted, still looking at her food as she spoke, fidgeting a bit with the triangle of toast. Suddenly the feeling of the crust crumbling under her fingertips was the most interesting thing she could possibly think of. "It almost feels like she doesn't really like or trust me... she tends to gravitate towards most anyone else."  
  
Grillby stared for a moment before setting his drink down, bringing his hands back up to sign something to her. Rolia watched intently for a moment before he continued. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say to you?"   
  
"No, I can't really--"   
  
_Oh._  
  
Grillby smiled softly at her, "It's not that she doesn't trust you--and she does--it's just that... wouldn't you try to be with people who understand you?"   
  
So it wasn't that the human was scared or uncomfortable... she just wanted to be heard? Of course it was a simple little thing. "And how do you know she trusts me?"  
  
The bartender simply pointed to the living room where the human continued to sleep, curled up and comfortable, even if she had to fight off the feeling that something else was there and lingering with Sam. "She's asleep. In the open. She didn't even wake up when I got here. She knows that she is safe and sound here."  
  
"So she's safe in the house, that's not the same as feeling safe around me. About trusting me."  
  
"Did she scream when she met you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Did she scream and run away when you brought her here?"  
  
"No?"  
  
"Then?"  
  
"... I hate it when you're right."  
  
Grillby just smiled at her, motioning to her food once again. Although, the conversation had only led to one simple conclusion: she needed to learn the monster's sign language again. While it was familiar, she was very out of practice--very, very out of practice.   
  
However, his explanation did make sense, and at least somewhat helped her to relax on that issue. "Just need to work on it, then..." She mused more to herself. "Then, there's... another issue." She mumbled through her words, almost like she didn't want to admit to them. "I've been seeing... something. I don't know how to explain it really, but it's not just me... Sans has seen it too, and it's not just fatigue induced. I've seen it after naps."

  
Grillby just raised an eyebrow. Seeing something? "What does it look like?"  
  
"It's... hard to explain." She admitted, eyebrows furrowing again as she took another bite of her food to try and find the words. "It comes and goes, just.. disappears. Mostly black, but a white head with black facial features. It's not solid... kind of... goopy?" Goopy. Such a scientifically accurate word there.   
  
"Alright, and when does it show up?"  
  
"Once outside the bar, while we were inside, and once while Sam and Frisk were coloring at Lady Toriel's house.. But no one else saw that I know of. Well, sans Sans."  
  


"And where did Sans see it?"

"when paps brought sam home after the king incident."

Speak of the skeleton and he shall appear.   
  
Had this not been a normal occurrence for both of the skeleton brothers, what with randomly appearing, Rolia was sure she would have jumped out of her skin. But instead she was content to just shovel another bite of toasted bread into her mouth. Within the next few seconds Sans had a bowl of the soup for himself, Grillby not even bothering to get up. The scientist did take a moment to shove a few books off the table and into another teetering pile.   
  
"What do you plan to do about it?"   
  
She took a breath, unable to help the fidgeting that started back up, and only came back to reality with a long and grating _sluuuuuuuurp_.   
  
"Or," Grillby continued, passing is gaze to Sans. "If you have any ideas, I'm sure they won't be immediately rejected."  
  
"as a matter of fact i do have an idea."   
  
Well this could be a bad thing.   
  
"but rolia has to let me use blue magic on sam."  
  
Scratch that, it was a terrible idea.  
  
"Why?" She was quick to ask. "You aren't going to be pulling her into a fight."  
  
"not her, the thing." Sans pulled a socket down in a knowing wink. "think about it. that thing is only around when sam is, right?"  
  
Rolia frowned. After meeting with the king, with her at Lady Toriel's house, and outside the bar with Sam inside. And even now, that feeling that came with that entity had followed them home, lingering around the human.   
  
"so we use that."   
  
"You won't be hurting her."  
  
"i won't." **Can't.**  
  
"She has a high level of LV."  
  
Sans just shook his head. "no _she_ doesn't.

But something--someone--else did. Something that had rooted itself deep into a Human's SOUL in a last ditch attempt to keep the human alive. Something that had committed sin after sin after sin, slipping through the levels until it was far higher than even her own. Something that would do anything to keep Sam safe and sound.   
  
Rolia shivered. She's not cold.  
  
"I don't like this." She admitted. After everything the human had already been through, why in the world would she agree to put the child in potential danger? There was no telling what even being faced with a fight would do. Panic, anxiety, anything could be a possibility. "I refuse."  
  
"do you trust me?"  
  
"Wh-"  
  
"i'm not going to hurt her. i won't even touch her."  
  
The living room was filled with a soft whine and the sound of skin ripping away from leather. The bartender said not a word as he stood and took to the human. Rolia watched him leave, lips pressed thin before she looked up at the skeleton. Sans only stared back with his grin itching to just get that much bigger.  
  
" _Fine_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long time between updates! 
> 
> I had a huge medical problem for these last few weeks, and it's made writing or doing more than laying in bed like a bundle of pain very difficult. But! Here we are and hopefully here to stay! 
> 
> Thank you for reading this and I hope you have a wonderful day!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a few friend shows up.

He remembered her.

The slightly crooked smile that always adorned her face when he cracked those terrible puns. The bright eyes, the curious hands. The familiarity of fingers in places they shouldn't be. He remembered her voice, quiet but cheerful. He remembered the way she followed him around like a lost duckling to and fro. He never minded. A human child that wasn't like the scary beasts all the stories made them out to be.

But he remembered leaving her behind when she didn't want to go to the librarby. He had a bad feeling that day.

She was gone when he came home that night.

He remembered Sam.

He remembered slipping past the ever locked door in his never ending search for the missing track of memory. The papers were just as much floor candy then as they had been when he finally returned. Screeches of long ignored machinery were silenced all at once when his eyelights finally noticed her.

He remembered leaving her.

He remembered the terrified look that stared back at him. He remembered the mouthed words that he barely caught the tail end of. He remembered the resonating bangs on the glass.

He remembered the way his voice caught in his non-existent throat the moment Papyrus told him they'd found a human in the True Lab. He remembered knowing exactly who he was talking about without even hearing a description. Seeing that sad, weak face only bore his sins deeper into his tired SOUL.

He wasn't going to leave her again.

Off to his right the Bat monster stood, perched under the porch to avoid the morning sun. Even with the privacy tree cover, nothing was going to stop the light from piercing through the light cloud cover and into the small clearing called the backyard. He debated popping back inside to get her some of the seven-ought pairs of sunglasses somewhere in the house, but opted against that as 1) she was closer, and 2) he didn't really feel like it. Instead he only stood there.

But Sans did look up when there were a few obvious and reasonably confused signs. The human stood across the length of the backyard across from him, the large shade tree blocking a lot of the sun from her skin. With a lack of monster with skin available sunscreen had been one of the last things that any of them had thought to get. The poor, pale human was just out of luck on the matter.

"don't worry, i'll show you my special attack." He can't help but wink at it. "don't worry, you won't get hurt."

'Special Attack?! Is it cool? Is it bones?' Sam was just smiling again, standing there and practically bouncing back and forth.

"well, it's sorta bones."

Well more like just one large bone.

Sam nodded after a bit, barely flinching when a quiet _ping_ was heard. But her knees shook in her attempt to stay as upright as possible. It was quite difficult in her already weakened state.

"....now you two need to stay put and don't move a muscle, ok?"

Don't move a muscle? Was he kidding? It was too hard to move right now anyway. Like something had grabbed the entirety of her being and was holding it down. But she didn't need to worry--not that she even was showing any signs of doing so--he wouldn't hurt her. No, Sans was fairly certain that no attack of his would ever remotely harm this human. He didn't want to anyways. 

  
It was too much work.

Sam tilted her head as he finally raised his hand. Magic crackled into the air instantly causing the entirety of her arms to ripple with gooseflesh. She stole a glance to the bat monster, happy to see that at least outwardly Rolia didn't seem to be too concerned. Well, at least she had that to go off of. Rolia was okay with this, only one tail flick. From what Sam knew that just meant she was thinking. Maybe she was wondering what Sans' special attack was too?

It was sure to be cool! Papyrus could summon all kinds of bones and with Sans also being a skeleton that meant the same for him, right?

"so sam..." He finally spoke again. "you know what magic is, yeah? there are different types. blue, orange, green, purple, and lots 'v others." As if to show it off, Sans carefully lifted the human off the ground, keeping her inches from the grass. Even if his hold failed she wouldn't end up seriously hurt. "magic is a representation of a monsters soul. their soul is the core of their being, the reason they are who they are."

His right socket slid closed, left eyelight flitting around until it caught sight of the amorphous mass peeking out from behind the aging tree trunk. Maybe if he kept talking longer the blob monster would come out. If that didn't work, he was definitely prepared to push things a little farther than simply making her float.

A soft giggle escaped her when she was very gently placed back on the ground. Well, at least she seemed to be having fun being carried about. He could try and chalk it up to her not fully understanding what this magic could be used for. But he knew, somehow, that someone -- some monster -- had used it on her before. In some way that didn't make her panic whatsoever.

"anyways, you're gonna be fine if you jus' stay still. remember: blue means **stop**."

Any magic filtering through the air was quickly swept up into a hefty summoning of bones. A sea of cyan blew past through the entirety of the yard.Wave after wave blasted through the yard, spiraling in patterns that equally captivated and scared her. Each bone shimmered with a blue magic, leaving her feel a little lighter with each wave that passed through Sam's body. It was incredible.

  
And utterly terrifying.

Any and all wonder that came with the oncoming attacks quickly shattered to leave behind nothing but utter fear. Stop. Stop! Her throat burned with each one that attempted to escape. Eventually she managed to pin her eyes shut. At least she didn't have to see it happening even if she could feel each bullet passing through her.

Until she didn't.

Sam waited a moment before daring to open her eyes again. The last thing she wanted was to be surprised with another sudden attack coming at her. The tugging on her entirety also faded out. So she peeked an eye out, finding a very familiar monster in front of her.

"hey. there you are."

**_HP: 688 | DEF: ERROR| EXP: 55258 | LV: 66_ **

**_██████ DOESN'T LIKE THIS_ **

Rolia gasped the moment her SOUL was let go, tail almost immediately flicking to the side before it wrapped around her torso. The blobby figure that had only appeared in peripherals and shadows was real. Real and curled up around Sam like a protective shield,absorbing any residual attacks until the battlefield was nothing more than the plain and boring backyard that it was.

"'ey ma, come check it out. sam brought a friend home." Sans let out a cheeky snort as his hand finally lowered and instantly slipped into his pocket once more.

"Are you sure you didn't invite them?"

"nah, but she's got them wrapped around her."

Speaking of Sam, the frail human trembled in her monster cocoon, enough so that even the skeleton held a drop of sweat running down his skull. Rolia neared Sam carefully, looking her over. It was likely the attacks that had her all frozen like this. Reminding her of days long past. Reminding her of what had to be her last waking moments before the years of darkness and solitude.

The scientist hummed a moment before motioning inside. "How about we head inside for some snacks? I have... something I'm sure."

Some snacks and a lot of questions. 

_██████ what would you do?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies that everything took so long to get out again! Thank you for your continued support!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Magic isn't good.

Between the approaching dusk and the sensitivity of those inside, the house fell to darkness. The two who slumbered lay curled up together in the chair, the skeleton having long succumbed to being trapped beneath the sleeping human. Rolia had thrown a blanket over them, more so for the human than the skeleton.

Talk about a day.   


It had taken 40 minutes to get back inside after the fight. This was mainly due to the blob monster completely and utterly refusing to let Sam go or even slurp it's way over to the porch to go inside with her. Cue the next half hour trying to figure out what it wanted, Rolia laughing quietly when it was discovered through Sans's snide comments that it wanted an apology for scaring Sam. 

Followed by ten minutes of said skeleton trying to find the right words to appease the mighty blob.

And all she wanted to do was write. Writing was so much easier than trying to deal with the swirling thoughts dancing endless waltzes inside her head. Words never made much since unless they were on paper, or at the very least finally structured somehow. Sticky notes, notebooks, even the one glittery rainbow scratch pad thing Papyrus had found in the dump. All of them were more than a lifeline to her.

  
_Heh, maybe I should have been an author and not a scientist._

Rolia flopped into her usual dining room chair, hands flying to find some copy of Sam's documents. 'Cannot speak.' The words stared back at her along with the spider webbed notes of 'Monster style Hands' and 'Injury at neck likely to prevent further speech'. That was right... She couldn't understand what Sam said to her.

She let out a soft groan as she pushed herself up enough to unearth the laptop and turn it on. If she didn't understand hands yet, it was time to do so. Perhaps then she could stop feeling terrible for not being able to understand the charge she'd taken on. Rolia couldn't imagine not being able to be understood by the one who decided to care for you. It must feel so... Lonely.

So that was that.

Rolia clicked on the first instructional video that she could find, straightened her back, and got to work.  
 ** _  
"Hello, and welcome to Toriel's Tu-Toriels! Today we will be learning the art of Monster Sign Language!"_**

  


* * *

The charming jingle from her phone pulled her from her research. Flashing lights mimicked the little ditty as it sang. Rolia rubbed her face slowly. 

Even with several hours worth of lessons, she still didn't feel confident in her knowledge of the unspoken language. How much more would it take before she _did_ feel comfortable? Days? Months? Should she just move forward and try it out? 

Rolia hummed some and slowly worked her way out of the chair, feeling the muscles along her back slowly uncoil from the curled up form she always found herself in. Another charm tore her attention back to her phone. It wasn't rapid fire enough to have been Papyrus, nor could it be Alphys in that regard, and the King usually just called her as he seemed to have never figured out texting... That left only a handful of people who could possibly be texting her. Rolia scooped up the device, only half surprised to find that Kerry was the one on the other end.

  
**_> >Nerd: We just got the results of thr tests back.  
>>Nerd: *the  
>>Nerd: Call me when you get a chance_**  
  
Odd.  
  
Since when did that human correct their texts?  
  
She didn't have much time to think it over with a suddenly appearing Sam skittering behind the bat monster, giggles echoing in her wake. Before Rolia could ask, the blobby monster poked it's head in, a cracked smile working over it's features.  
  
Sam giggled behind her, shooting Rolia a smile to do her best to let the bat monster know that all was well. The blobby monster's smile widened before it scooted closer to Sam. Apparently they'd started up some sort game of tag? Rolia couldn't help but watch intently. Was Sam really able to play and have this sort of activity level without wearing herself out?   
  
Before she could do much, however, her phone buzzed again. And again. And again.. until she finally answered the incoming phone call. "Yes, Dr. Hazel?"  
  
"Doctor? Since when did I finish my thesis?"  
  
" _Kerry_ -"  
  
"What's Sam up to?"  
  
She furrowed her brow, stealing a glance at the girl currently running back out to the living room and behind the couch, the goop on her heels. "Why?"  
  
"Just wondering." _Because she can't hear this_. "Have you monitored her magic levels?"  
  
"Not since we got home." Rolia carefully pinned the phone between her shoulder and ear, hands moving to fill her teapot. "She has mostly been sleeping since then."  
  
A handful of whispers that she assumed was Alphys debating something with Kerry came as a reply.  
  
She didn't say a word back. Her mind was already spinning with countless theories of what could be the reason for the call. A failed test. A test result error. The machine refused to print anything and they didn't save anything by accident.   
  
"Okay, listen." Kerry eventually responded for real. "Do not let her use magic."  
  
"I do not think she is able to regularly perform magic like monsters can." A test strip reacting to magic does not a wielder make. "But I will keep an eye out."  
  
"Good. Dr. Alphys is worried about her magic consumption."  
  
"And why is that?" A single flick of the tail and the burner was on, Rolia eyed the cow jar. "I am her current guardian. I need all the information possible."  
  
There was a hesitation in their voice. The phone shifted in their hands.  
  
"Dr. Hazel."  
  
"We know humans don't naturally regenerate magic levels in their bodies. They need monster food or a monster's magic to do so, right?"  
  
A biology lesson? She jumped at the loud moooo from the jar, silently shooting it quite the angered face. "Dr. Hazel, I wrote the book. Yes, I know."  
  
"Right. And you know that monster's SOUL cannot survive without magic."  
  
Oh. Oh no.  
  
"If she uses up her magic, _Sam will die_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Attempting to get more chapters out as soon as I can! Thank you for your support!


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing can be easy, can it?

Papyrus paused.

"ya coming home anytime soon? ma and grillbz ask how ya are. m'bee give 'em a call soon."

Four days, three nights. That's all he had been gone for. Four days that Sans had been staying with Dr. Rolia and not at home. Four days that he had not at least sent a text to either of the stand in parents. It hadn't even seemed that long already. 

He must be sure to remedy that.

Everyone already had plenty to worry about, what with Human Sam in the picture now. He didn't need his safety or wellbeing to be a concern as well.

"I SHALL DO SO POST HASTE! OR AT LEAST IN THE MORNING!" He spouted off, jotting down to do exactly that before his morning meetings. "I HOPE YOU HAVE BEEN EATING SEMI REGULARLY AND MORE THAN YOUR HORRENDOUS KETCHUP!"

"'course, bro. grillbz is here cooking for sam. ma makes me eat with them."

There was a moment of silence between the two as Sans presumably shifted out of the chair he undoubtedly had been pinned to when the human of the house fell asleep. According to Sans, Sam had been sleeping quite a lot between her daily magic level tests and lessons on current humanness. 

"any idea when you'll be getting back?"

"UNFORUNTE-NATELY, NO... THE COUNCIL HAS ALSO SUMMONED BOTH THE KING AND LADY TORIEL." Papyrus frowned a little. It was definitely not something he was enjoying, playing meeting tag with whether or not monsters would be forced to the outskirts of town until the humans were more comfortable with them. "DO NOT WORRY, I HAVE YET TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HUMAN SAM! DR. ALPHYS HAS NOT SAID THAT I CAN MENTION HER YET."

Frankly he had no intentions of even mentioning the human. Unless he somehow slipped up and mentioned Sam by name, the others of the coalition would likely just assume that he was speaking about Frisk, and then he would not have to lie, nor would he have to admit that said human was even alive. 

Why was being good to everyone so hard?

"hey, um, gotta question for ya."

Papyrus knew that tone. Sans only used that tone when he was hiding something. When he wanted to know answers without giving away how Sans really feel. It came in two ways: the 'I already know the answer and want to know what you do' and the 'I'm pretending that I don't really know but I need you to tell me what I know to confirm you know'. 

"jus'..." There's a long sigh and the tell-tale sign of bone scraping against bone. "'re you sure that you don't remember anything about some human we grew up with?"

The idle scritching of his pencil stopped abruptly, hesitating to start again. "No, Sans. I don't remember ' _some human_ ' _. "_

"...oh."

Papyrus knew what would happen if Sam's presence was released to the public. Outrage. Panic. Fear. The council surely would blame the monsters for purposely hiding the human. If not that then they would claim the monsters were not fit to be involved with humans.

Oh how he wanted to inform them that monsters were not the racist, egotistical, and 'above all' ones in this situation.

But he also couldn't deny the actions that Asgore had taken. Several human SOULs had been forcefully removed from their bodies and stored with hopes to break the infernal barrier. All without undeniable proof that nothing ill would have come from it, or even if only 7 could have worked. He rubbed his face a little, shifting the cellphone to the other side just in time to hear Sans clatter against something.

"Sans are you in the pantry again?"

The following silence was all Papyrus needed.

"SANS!"

"ok look, it was th' only place i could talk to you without the blob lookin' at me."

"Did you apologize again?"

"no, not yet. sam's playing with 'im."

"Make sure you do." Sometimes Papyrus didn't understand what his brother decided to get himself into. Pulling a traumatized human into an encounter?! How careless! "I will check and see when I get back if you have!"

"yeah, yeah. ok, bro. i'll see you then."

The remaining twenty minutes of the phone call was spent with the two of them dancing between topics until a farewell was given, that alone being drug out until surely he needed to check himself for cavities again. That was another thing he never understood. Always striving to get Papyrus the best, caring indefinitely, but never taking care of his own self. Sans really only seemed to do so when there was another person going to benefit from the actions. 

Papyrus scratched out another note to himself. _Research therapists. Call Kerry for recommendations._

The Angel knows they all need one.

But for another time. No, instead he knew he had more pressing matters to deal with. Even though it was late in the evening and the others were surely just settling in for the night with his usual stack of paperwork, Papyrus knew it was something that needed to be done. He needed to know everything. Every feeling, every decision, every following action. While the initial reasons were respectable for the monsters at the time, the reality of what taking SOULs came with more consequences for the race of monsters on the surface. 

Frankly Papyrus just wanted to make sure Sam wasn't going to make the situation between monsters and humans even worse. It wasn't her fault whatsoever. She had done no wrong, and it didn't take any Royal Scientist to know that. Sam was just so... 

An idle creek spread through the room with the skeleton's tiny chair shifted. The green notebook was opened, pen at the ready. All that was left to do was meticulously scroll through his beautifully organized and named contacts before his shaking fingers clicked on the name. 

Shoot, with all the calls he'd made with Frisk, Papyrus thought his nervousness with phone calls would cease. 

"Howdy, Papyrus!"

"Hello, your majesty!" He sat up a bit straighter. "How was your trip?"

"I'm just settling down here! It's a tight fit, but it's manageable."

"Dr. Hazel suggested this hotel, so I'm pleased that they are adequate."

A hearty laugh followed. "Well I'll be sure to thank them!" There was a loud creak of the bed. "But is something wrong? You sound nervous."

"Er...." _Here we go._ "I have some questions I need you to answer."

"Of course! I'm here to help! What are they?"

A deep breath. 

Papyrus steeled his face.

"Tell me everything you know about Sam."

* * *

Sans slipped his phone into his pocket, followed by his hands. Papyrus had been no help in figuring anything new out, and he was too busy with the Governing powers to sit and play catch up. He let out an annoyed sigh before waving to bat mom, slipping out the pantry door and of the house entirely. Rolia barely managed to get a wave back out to him, unable to help a small chuckle from escaping her throat. She glanced up, finding the time far past when she had wanted to feed the human. Staying on a consistent schedule would be more likely to have her get physically well again.

So Rolia slid the computer back from herself, humming quietly and going to find out what sort of stuff Grillby had decided to fill her fridge with. Rolia almost wanted to frown at the lack of easy to make snacks. Of course the elemental would still be trying to get her to spend more time taking care of herself. It's been well over four centuries since he pulled a stunt like not-so-subtly filling her fridge and pantry with healthy foods. Well, he'd at least have Sam as an excuse. Selecting the closest bag of mixed salad, a few toppings, and the two dressings she had to choose from, Rolia closed the door before immediately biting back a startled noise.

  
Where the door had just been, the creature stared back up at her, tilting his mask-like face to the side. The bat monster stole a glance to the living room, where Sam still slept in the armchair. No goop or remnants of the blob monster gave any indication of how he had gotten behind the refrigerator door so quickly. He hadn't even made any noise.

One of his hands raised, a spindly finger slowly but surely going to point to the bag she held.

"It is salad."

Only a further tilt of the head.

"Food." Did it not understand? She hesitated before bringing her hand up to her mouth, gently tapping it. 

Well, he seemed to understand that.

Very quiet footsteps cleared the corner after a moment. Sam gently rubbed at her eyes, only to stop and gasp softly when Rolia pulled her hand down from her mouth. 'You learned!'

Ah, yes. This really _was_ it. Sam wasn't afraid of her, just wanted to talk. Damn it when Grillby was completely right over something simple. Stupid scientist brain wanting to over analyze absolutely everything.

"I learned so that I can understand you." She responded, motioning to the vegetation she'd already gotten out. "Are you hungry?" 

Sam moved over to the counter, looking at each item that was already laid out. 'What is this?'

"That's a tomato." 

The human gently poked it, gasping softly when it started rolling down the counter. She went right after it and brought it back to Rolia. The curiosity continued until all of the ingredients to the salad were named and the dish completed. A few ham and cheese rolls, and a handful of small oranges, and the two were sitting at the table with a very late lunch. Early dinner? Dunch? Linner?

"This is something you have to eat with your fork, Sam." Rolia showed her, "But the rolls don't have to be. You can just hold those with your hands."

And the poor unsuspecting lettuce was quickly stabbed. Stabbed and quickly shoved into her mouth. Rolia almost made a saddened noise out loud. Had she really been that hungry this whole time? Why didn't she ask? 

Halfway through her salad, Sam dropped her fork, half a leaf of lettuce hanging out of her mouth, and started signing rapidly. Even though the learning had been very, very recent, there was no way to the stars and back that Rolia could have kept up. She barely managed to catch half the words. Something about 'science' and 'hand'.

Rolia waved her hand a bit to stop Sam's frantic words. "Sam, please little one, slow down. What about science?"

Sam chipmunk chewed her way down the free hanging lettuce, barely aware that doing so simply put gobs of dressing across her chin. 'Did Gaster teach you hands?'

"Perhaps? I learned it a long, long time ago... but this time I just took a class online." Rolia scooped up a napkin and stood, sliding from her seat quickly and holding out the hand to clean Sam's face. "You're an absolute mess, here, allow me-"

The chair beneath the human let out a terrified groan that only matched Sam's volant flinch away from the bat monster. Before Rolia could move a single inch more, towards or away, a pair of squishy hands yanked hers away, ensuring that Sam was safely far away from her.

Not afraid? Only wanted to talk? 

If it wasn't either of those, then what in the world had happened to this child? Bad enough that someone coming near her face would earn a rapid retreat? Rolia took a small breath and gently pulled away from the blob monster, offering him a very kind smile. Hopefully that would tell him that she hadn't meant to startle Sam. 

The room fell to silence. 

Rolia's head fell into her hands.

The napkin fell to the table.

Sam was scooped up into protective blobby arms. 

What was she supposed to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope a longer update goes over well! I got really excited to write, and this was the result! Thank you so much for the comments and the support!


End file.
